I'z Kool aka Flynn

Bye bye Flynny

2010-02-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

Well it would appear my darling boy was in high demand!

He only went to Angela's Sunday night, and was gone by Thursday night... He sold to the first person to come & see him, with 2 very, very extremely good riders also wanting to come and see him.

He has gone to a really lovely young rider in Clevedon, I'm allowed to visit whenever I like and will be able to see them out and about at competitions which is very cool. She rides him very nicely and said she loves how he feels xc, so I really think they are going to make the best partnership. Can't wait to see where they get to!

Update - since I suck at keeping this updated

2010-01-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

I took Flynn home to Masterton so that we could mosey around on the farm over the Xmas, we went for big hacks with Mandy, out along the ruamahunga river, and also up the big hill at the back of the farm. We jumped streams and chased sheep and had a blast!

On the sad side of things, I have decided to sell my darling horse. I put everything I have, into what I do with him and although I do really love it & he really is my one in a million horse, I just can't do it any longer. I was lucky enough to have Richard propose to me last year, and I'd love to be in a position where we could pay for a wedding sooner rather than later, maybe have a holiday, or even just buy some clothes for a change! I am too competitive to want to just hack around at home, I know I'd go crazy and Flynn's only 7 years old and going so well, that I'd be silly not to take the opportunity to sell him. He'll be going on the market very soon, I'm hoping Angela will market him for me as I just can't do it myself, I'd cry everytime someone got out of the car! So on that note, here are some photos of Flynn over the years

First Day

6 months later

First Outing - TiPapa Winter SJing (3 years old - thought he was 4 at the time, didn't realise he was so young!!)

First Jumping Lesson - Kirstin Kelly (4 years old)

Hopuhopu SJing (5 years old)

Relaxing in the stream at Hunua (5 years old)

Tip & Out Adult Ride (6 years old)

Hunua HT (6 years old)

Taupo XC Schooling (7 Years Old)

Puhinui HT (7 years old)

Puhinui - PreNovice Champ Class

2010-01-25T14:10:00.001-08:00

After Richfields I realised that I have spent a lot of time working on my avid dislike of dressage, however had not put any time or work into my SJ or XC. I have always been very lucky in that Flynn was talented enough to get himself out of a bad situation if I put him in it, but am learning that now we're getting to levels that I actually have to participate, he can't do it all himself, especially if I'm being a lump on his back & not riding well! So boot camp for Kristal and I spent more time with Angela working on technical lines etc. Apparently I completely suck at looking where I'm going and don't start making any turns until at least 1-2 strides after landing. Well a few weeks of lessons certainly fixed that bad habit hehehe

Trot up was fun, Ky helped me get Flynn ready & he looked a million bucks. He also thought it was a fantastic idea since everyone was watching, to power off in a really big trot nearly leaving me behind & then when we turned to come back again he got excited, did his leapy thing and then took off in big trot again. He's cute that one! Passed the trot up no worries.

Dressage was good, in fact it was great. I saluted and had tears pouring down my face, was the best dressage test I've ever done, we were accurate, he was fantastic and just felt amazing! Turns out it marked as well as it felt too, we were marked by 2 judges & we actually got the highest mark in the class (71.74%), however our second mark was lower, which averaged us out to 68.69% for second place!!! (Yeah baby!) on 31.3%.

Cross Country was again fantastic, some horrible lines and some ugly jumps, including a hideous drop over a log, 4 strides to a very skinny chevron off to the right. Flynn was a star & I have to say, I think I rode him really well too! Only unfortunate part was that we caught up with the rider in front of us at the Maori Pa & I was stuck behind her for 1km screaming at her to move over etc but she couldn't hear me and I had to keep pulling Flynn up to stop from following too closely. Very lucky I didn't get time faults, I crossed the line right as my watch went off. The good run had put us in to 1st place. Holy heck, the pressure was on!!!

Flynn lost a front shoe somewhere on the course, from looking at photos he had lost it before the water jump, so had done over half the course with just 1 front shoe. Brave pony! Farrier came out that night & put a new one on & we iced and iced and iced like nobodies business, which resulted in a sound trot up the next morning.

I arrived late for my SJing which was not a good start, Angela stayed to help warm me up which was lovely of her when she had to get ready for her next class. We warmed up well, however as I entered the ring, I had to stop & wait for the first jump to be put back up again, which completely broke my concentration. I then adopted a very fatalistic "lets get it over with" approach, as the nerves just completely took over. I didn't ride well at all, the lines were all mixed up with long strides and short strides in the related triple etc and I let him get flat down a long 6 stride line which resulted in a rail. I then gunned him at the triple which worked, however didn't bring him back enough for the short 2 stride double, which resulted in us taking out the first fence as he wouldn't slow down & I wasn't softening!!! It wouldn't have made much of a difference if I had let go, he would have cleared the first one and taken the second one anyway as the stride was so short and he is such a long striding horse and was going at a good speed LOL, so I still feel better that I was my choice and not his.

So the 2 rails put us back to 7th place however was good enough to give us the highest place amateur award, so we won a lovely rug sponsored by Horse & Pony Magazine. YAY! Big thank to Ky for constantly primping & cleaning Flynn, he looked fantastic all weekend and big thanks for Mel for the XC Photos! Also thanks to my cooling down team for the XC, Richard, Ky, Lynette & Emma, you guys rock and have iced water throwing down to a fine art!!

Richfields - PreNovice Champ Class

2010-01-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well I got all ambitious & entered the champ class at Richfields... Yes, yes, I know, I've only done 2 Pre Novices & 1 Open PC but still! LOL

Dressage was actually really good after a very tense warmup, he was more interested in what the broodmares were doing a few paddocks over, they were running around when we were walking over for our dressage. Lucky he likes to show off in the dressage arena and put on a really good test for for 39.71 penalty points, which put us just 7points behind the leaders who were on 32.9. Good start and shows that my least favourite phase is getting stronger! He did however feel like he was a fraction too fit and could easily have gone for another hour... hmmm not good for XC day LOL

Cross Country unfortunately was a bit of a difference in opinion between us. His version is that you should go as fast as possible and not slow down at any stage. However this did mean that we had 2 run outs, one when I dropped my reins when he did a big leap over a roll top which was 5 strides to a skinny on a curve (totally my fault!) but then we had our second run out at the bottom of the hill when he landed after the roll top & tried to take off again, however there was only 3 strides before an ugly palisade which he literally slid into as he was just going to fast and it completely caught him by surprise. I think for next time I will make sure I am sitting up in combinations and NOT letting him run on, he wasn't even remotely prepared for it, so again, my fault but not helped by over cocky horse! He sailed through the water which was the most technical we've ever had, so was super proud of him. I made sure I kept my reins over the rest of the curved lines and we did them all no worries. Shame it took so long to get into our stride on the course, I think I got a bit frantic and shut down when I couldn't get him to slow up. Time for a new bit me thinks!!

Show Jumping was ok, very tight tough course that they had run the earlier 2 non champ prenovice classes over, which had then lead it to be completely cut up by the time it was our classes turn. There were slide marks everywhere! Flynn was clear up until the liverpool, 3 strides out he was fine, 2 strides out he saw the cut up ground & just hesitated for a second, which was enough to start us sliding as I didn't have front studs in. Unfortunately we had that stop & we had 1 rail at the planks which were off a tight corner. I could have ridden the corner a lot better, all in all Richfields gave us lots to work on which is always good when you know you can fix those mistakes! :)

No photos, I can't find where I've downloaded them to!

Papatoetoe PC - Open 6th & 7th November

2010-01-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

Well at least we provided the entertainment in the SJ!
Dressage test was nice, for 6th place, then I got completely & utterly lost twice in the SJing. So lost I had to halt and look around and find the next jump as my 2 big circles hadn't helped me out LOL Then Flynn got confused and thought I was going to circle when I wasn't and took a rail. Complete disaster and I started laughing and couldn't stop. Not a good look :D Cross country was great though and he flew into the water both times, including over our first log into water. Over the big ugly trakhener too, so I was very happy with him. Good to have another clear XC before Richfields. Finished 9th :)

Whangarei Pre Novice 24th & 25th October

2010-01-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

Made the hike up to Whangarei and happily, my little truck made it too! Bit slow but we got there :D

Flynn's dressage was good, he even got an 8 from Judith Mathews for his lengthened trot! 31.3%, good pony! 6th after the dressage

Clear SJing which was a relief as again there was carnage in the SJ, 7 clear rounds this time though, but had us sitting 3rd place going into the XC.

Cross country - the course was a nice course, there was just the 1 jump out the back that I really didn't like, log on ground, with just 1 more raised full height log a metre out & you could see through both of them to the short sharp downhill on the other side. Angela cheered me up by saying that 12 year olds do it all the time. Well that worked! PMSL Flynn went clear which was fantastic, exactly what we both needed. Such a nice feeling having both of us feel confident! LOL

Not sure how, but we ended up winning! YAY!

Taupo Pre Novice - 17th & 18th October

2010-01-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

So I bit the bullet and we upgraded to Pre Novice at Taupo. Took the day off work and headed down late morning so that I could have a leisurely drive down and even have a ride down there Friday afternoon. Arrived about 2 and had plenty of time to just slowly organise myself. Had a great ride, so was looking forward to the dressage part anyway! Had a look at some of the XC fences and OMG, they were massive!! I'd only ever jumped Pre Novice/Novice fences while out schooling, if I had had to walk up to them on foot before hand, I'd have never have done them! The course looked to be full height, with the majority of the fences being newly made which made them all look bigger and 10x more scarey!

Dressage on Saturday went well, Flynn was the best behaved he'd ever been in a dressage test but at the same time felt quite flat. I was really stoked with him, as it was my first time trying to do the new version of A3 & I didn't need to be dealing with and avoiding any naughty displays on his part hehehe Only got 58.5% in dressage which put us 15th after the dressage.

Show Jumping was complete carnage, there were rails being taken left, right & centre and Flynn didn't have the most inspiring warm up, knocking the practice rail for a 6 and shoving it about 3m away from the jump. Fantastic, that will help my nerves!! I was quite worried that Flynn having done a lot of training, would not be ready for the jumps to be 1.05m instead of 95cm and surely enough, he took out the first rail. On the plus side though, he did clear everything else really well. Only 2 people in our whole class of 26 went clear in the SJ, so we moved up to 6th equal going in the XC.

Cross Country was honestly petrifing, the jumps were massive, with some pretty good questions. They had an elephant trap on the edge of a slight incline right next to the truck carpark that caused a few problems with horses just deciding it was easier to head to the truck park and not take the right hand turn going into the jump. Flynn was good for this jump, he just looked at it & leaped over, which was good! He did however start to run on a bit down the hill and shied at the gateway (great idea in the mud!) We then had to gallop down the back of the pine trees to a tricky little combination of 3 offset logs, which had a tree in the middle of the third log, you could go down 1 side for 2 strides each, or down the other side and get 3 strides. I opted for the 2 strides which was a little silly as Flynn came round the corner and spotted the spectators, didn't see the jump, fell over the first one, I smacked him, we scrabbled over the second one & then I just took my leg off and he jumped out to the left of the third one. Quick circle & cleared it & carried on. Our next fence was a ramp in the trees with a tree being about 3 strides in front of it, so no clear line in, he was spooky for it but jumped it anyway & I think he found his stride after that as was just super for the rest of the course, including our first ever keyhole! We finished in 12th place with our stop, so proud of my boy, once he clicked on, he just became a machine, ended up really enjoying ourselves on the XC & thats a first! LOL

Luckily Taupo counted as a qualifying round for Richfields & Puhinui, so just needed 1 more with a double clear & I'd be in. Photos to come

Te Rapa Training 3rd & 4th October

2010-01-07T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well, for our first start back, we really did have the worst weather! Flynn went through 3 covers that turned out to be no longer waterproof & I went through 3 jackets, also no longer waterproof. They ended up having commercial tractors in towing people out as their tractor was also getting stuck. Flynn was good in the dressage, Louise videod it for me and apart from one minor athletic moment in the left rein canter, he was an angel. However didn't mark very well at all and ended up 18th after the dressage. I quickly went & did the show jumping so that we could be over & done with before the weather packed in big time, so glad I did! Clear SJing and Flynn was just lovely to ride, we had the perfect canter and it was adjustable! Completely stoked with my boy, this put us into 8th place after the SJ. It poured down all night, never seen the grounds look so wet, thick mud everywhere. The one saving grace with the WEC being on the side of the Waikato river, the ground under the mud was holding up really well. Flynn went clear XC, however we were held up halfway round the course as the ground had come away on the side of one of the crossings. This incurred us time faults, so we finished 6th. Got a nice brush and a lovely rosette, was a lovely finish to the weekend

Schooling at Home

2009-09-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Asked Richard to come out and fix my truck, so figured might as well get a couple of flatwork photos for the blog.

Taupo for XC Schooling

2009-09-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

& I DIDN'T GET WET!!!

Went with Ky and Kylee to Taupo to go schooling for the weekend. With the last trip to Taupo being a little disappointing with me ending up in the water jump, I was understandably a little nervous about what sort of horse I had taken down with me. The old Flynn was so whimpy about XC jumps that he'd slide to a stop at an intro log if he hadn't seen an xc jump in a little while. Well thankfully the old Flynn has long gone, we started off over some PreTraining logs which he flew over, then straight into a PreTraining chevron, which he just lined up and went at it. Ok, cool, scrap the baby jumps then, lets just go for the training ones, which he did without a single hesitation, including over the logs into the water where we had parted company 2 years ago. Gosh I love the new Flynn, feels so confident, he really just takes you into the jumps without the slightest feel of doubt. No photos from day one as we all rode together.

Day two was a bit wet by the time I rode, but on the plus side, got heaps of photos! Started jumping anything and everything in front of us, including a big intermediate roll top and quite a few Novice jumps. Then remembered that I was just there to practice over the PreNovice stuff in preparation for our PN start at Taupo in October, so settled down and just did them instead. Figured that I am planning on having Flynn for a long time, so no point pounding him over the bigger jumps when I really just want a nice PreNovice horse for the time being :)

Flynn's baaaaack

2009-09-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

So Flynn was turned out on the 3rd of May for 3 months holiday at his aunty Louise's place. No feed and only 1 bale of hay was consumed and he came back in FAT!! Like heavily pregnant broodmare fat! And with the joys of being a hairy stationbred, he also came back in looking like a red yeti!

First things first, Ky came out & clipped him for me, so that he look 10x more presentable. Sadly, didn't change how fat he looked LOL He was great for his first ride, not even needing to be lunged, just hopped on and went for a wander around the PC grounds. Day 2 and even Jannine rode him, he was such a good boy. Day 7 however did end up with a very fresh athletic horse LOL luckily it was just for the 1 ride and we haven't seen any more of that behaviour.

As I was away for the weekend with friends in Ohakune and we were going to Taupo for schooling the weekend after, I needed him kept fit and fed, so he got sent to Angela's for exercise. Very handy! Apparently he was a joy to have around and is allowed back any time :)

So back into it, have moved to a new grazing that has a 60x20 arena with floodlight at one end, stables, 13 acres with 4 horses on it, feed room, tack room, concrete hosedown etc... goal for the season is to do training at Te Rapa 3/4 October, then hit PreNovice at Taupo 17/18 October, with the aim to be ready for the big classes at Richfields end of November and Puhinui in December.

Adult Riding Club Prizegiving

2009-07-07T01:00:00.000-07:00

WOW. So it appears all the blood, sweat, tears and unwillingness to give up, have paid off! Flynn won the Hyde Dressage Cup, the Show Jumping Cup and to finish off the night, also took out the coveted Tele-Ho Eventing Trophy. The Tele-Ho eventing trophy is run by Angela Burrill, who gives you points for every entry, every top 10 dressage placing, clear SJ round, etc, etc. She also gives upgrade points each time you move up a grade. She was top of the leaderboard herself over the spring season, however we managed to pip her at the post with 91 points to her 64 at the end. She has worked tirelessly to score/provide prizes etc and without her generosity, this trophy wouldn't exist. The picture in the trophy is of Ange & Tele-ho jumping into the water at Kihikihi. Lovely trophy too, very cleverly done. Came away with a free Allan Goodall lesson so that should be intersting, will make sure I have photos from that one!!

Flynn also got a certificate for being "Party Popper of the Year" as he popped all the balloons on the joker fence at Pony Club camp in January "for putting his body on the line and saving everyone from the evil balloons". Unfortunately we were 2nd to go and nobody had spare balloons to redo the jump. Suffice to say everyone found the joker so much easier after that LOL

Te Rapa HT - Training - 2/3 May

2009-05-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm... interesting weekend actually...

Went down Friday night and rode in the sand arena as wanted him to be as acclimatised as possible. Was silly for 20 minutes and then bingo, he all of a sudden settled and started to work quite nicely.

Saturday morning dawned, weather was crap, day consisted of pretty much constant drizzle. Tacked up & rode to the sand arena to warm up and he was just beautiful to ride, lovely and soft and straight and was listening & was even soft across the top of his poll, which is always the last place to soften on him. Went over to ride up the bank to the grass arena's and he didn't want to go up there, get up the arena and then he decides to be an acrobatic idiot in front of the spectators. We even got a few giggles as I was just saying "Don't even THINK about it" when he promptly launched & leapt into the air. Did a 4 foot plant in front of the judges car, where we then promptly had our bell rang. He pulled out an amazing lengthened trot going down the long side away from the judges car & I just knew the test was going to go to custard LOL

He powered up the centreline, however managed to stay really straight, so that was a good start. Unfortunately he just got more and more energetic as the test went on and by the time came to canter, he did his elevated canter on both reins, and every single step, instead of his normal "left rein only & only the second step after transition"
Pulled him out of canter as early as possible on each rein, however I do have to say he did some really nice trot work and a lovely free rein walk (no idea how he was so relaxed when he was a such a shyite for everything else!!) After our test, I went and worked him in the sand arena again for 10 minutes. Funnily enough, he was straight back to being super nice & polite. In fact a friend who didn't realise we hadn't gone, even commented, "Gosh he's going super, I bet you hope your test is soon!" LOL oh well, never mind, its the second time he's gotten a bit tense at the grass arena's at WEC, wonder if he remembers the jet boat from last time?

Went back to the truck and changed gear for the SJing as just wanted to get it over & done with and try & get him back in his warm covers before the weather got too much worse. Thank goodness for studs, footing was pretty grotty, so jumped hard up the right side of all the practice jumps to try and get a clean track in. Went into the ring and decided with all the yuck corners that perhaps our Show Hunter "expertise" could possibly put us in good stead. Turns out it really helped, except for a small slip coming into jump 6 which resulted in our one and only rail.

Got both of us dried and changed into warm clothing before we could freeze any further.

Lucky I have all my rugs in the truck, it was so cold down there that I ended up with the woollen show rug on my bed with hot water bottle and he was wearing everything else!

Cross Country day - luckily the weather cleared up for it, as was quite an interesting track, making the most of the little steep hills. We had to do a sharp turn onto a steep short downhill to a ditch in front of a log upright. It was just like a palisade but without the solid back wall, quite weird being able to see straight through LOL I had my whip out and legs on and everything and unfortunately we had a stop there, I can honestly, hand on heart, say that it wasn't for lack of riding on my part, we even slid in to the ditch as I was so committed. After he finishing shaking & overreacting about the jump, I turned a tight circle, gave him a good smack half a stride out & he leapt over it like it was going to burn him. Had to sit up & get him controlled again as 6 strides later was a drop fence on the edge of a very steep hill. He hesitated momentarily before leaping over it, I'm sure the butt paddling he got going in to helped as well LOL
He went the rest of the way around the course clear, including jumping the big log into the water and doing all the harder options, straight through the bounce etc. Very proud of my boy by the end, he is just turning into such a machine, I am really looking forward to giving pre novice a good crack next season!!

Photos from the weekend here: http://www.takethemoment.co.nz/photos/v/events/TeRapa/Mattingley_N7324.JPG.html

Adult Ride Dressage and Show Jumping Comp

2009-04-26T23:47:00.001-07:00

Papatoetoe Adult Ride has 3 dressage and 3 show jumping comps per season, and lately we have been starting to hold them together on a Saturday to make better use of our time/people available to help set up etc. I decided to be brave/dumb and entered Flynn in the 2.4 test as although we weren't ready for that sort of test, the whole idea of the comp is to give it a go in a more laid back setting. So entered 2.4 and started to pray LOL Also, in the week leading up to the comp, our lengthened trot button decided to break. It was nowhere in sight, he would just run along, even if I balanced him right back in the corner. Not looking good LOL

Saturday came & thank goodness, as we were warming up, I discovered that our lengthen button had been reinstalled. YAY! Flynn actually ended up doing a really super test and good grief, he even won his class on 74%! he got 8s & 7s and only 1x 6 in the whole test. Even got an 8 for one of his lengthened trot movements. Ended winning not only his class, but also got the highest test score over the whole day to win the dressage part overall. Go the jumper!!

We then had the Show Jumping part of the competition. Unfortunately I was only one in my 1.05m class, ooo, guess who won? LOL but our jump off time was good enough to actually win overall in the Show Jumping, so took out that as well. I was so proud of my boy!!

Best part of the Show Jumping comp is that we encourage people to have a play at the end, so got them to put some of the jumps up. Yes well, I thought one of them looked pretty decent& sure enough, got the measuring stick out, big oxer, 1.25m high and 1.20wide. He didn't even feel laboured by it, just flew over it no worries. Got to love the orange pony! We even did it a few times to prove it wasn't a once off LOL

Then stupidity set in & I was dared to do the 1.10m upright without reins, so knotted them on his neck and dropped them a stride out to do a flying angel. Hmmm stupid much? Had a sudden thought as I flung my arms out including whip (can you see where I am going here?) that it was potentially a really dumb thing to do if he happened to catch sight of the whip out the side of his eye. Luckily he didn't even bat an eyelid and just jumped it nicely & cantered off nicely on the other side. Thank god he has more sense than I do!! Won't be doing that again in a hurry LOL

Consolidating what we've learnt

2009-04-26T22:50:00.001-07:00

I've been having lessons with Angela every fortnight since the last week of January and I have to say, what a difference!! I no longer wiggle my hands around and they are starting to get a lot more even, I even have a photo of me riding flatwork on my friends horse & OMG and they are level! I am also getting less naggy with my legs, which means that Flynn listens when I use them, which is always nice!

Angela is really quite taken with Flynn and I've promised her I'll go to her first if I ever decide to sell him. My main problem is that I just couldn't replace him! I've even upped my bravery levels and am going to go out and do Pre Novice next season after a Training start, as we have been schooling at that level with Angela and I am not longer petrified at the thought! I have even quite happily done a few novice roll tops, so the future is definitely looking brighter.

First weekend of April I took Flynn down to PC & practiced an exercise that Angela taught me, which involes a low but heinously wide oxer and a jump 1 stride on either side of it. Jannine very nicely took photos for me
Shame he knocked this one

Then it was off to play on the XC course. I really want him to be comfortable over trakheners as that was our biggest problem at Te Rapa HT last year, so have been practicing them heaps and he's not even remotely fussed about them now! Jannine had done up a new jump for horses to be scared of, so put him over both of those. So cute over the bags they were going to eat his tootsies dontcha know!!

Not even fazed by the big hole in the ground!

Puhinui Horse Trial - Got our groove back?

2009-04-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes we did! After the disaster at Rotorua where I seriously thought I had completely set us backwards, turns out we're not as stuffed as I had thought. We went out and did quite a lot of XC schooling with Angela to get really settled at it and had a great jump schooling lesson with her the week of the competition.

Dressage went really nicely, he was very well behaved, scoring 67.64%, for which gained us 11th place going into the Show Jumping. He then did a lovely clear round which pulled us up to 7th place.

And tada - lovely CLEAR cross country round. I was so stoked! There wasn't anything on the course I was overly concerned about, it was all just roll tops etc, but there was a big roll top out the back that was made wider with brush & was quite tall if you were stupid like I was & measured yourself against it at the back LOL. I was a little concerned about him going to fast into as it was at the back of the course down a hill where you then had to double back to do the corner. He actually came back quite nicely to me & jumped it well & then turned quite controllably which was nice! I really do think that speed is 100% our problem, I'm just not sure why yet...

We ended up 5th for a lovely rosette and gift pack from the sponsor of our class, I think Flynn will have a lovely untangled tail for the rest of his life as we got a Savvy Touch spray bottle plus a refill pack!! Photos to come...

Rotorua HT - 7/8 March

2009-04-22T15:04:00.001-07:00

Took a half day to drive down the Rotorua HT and am so glad I did! What a day for things to go wrong! The goal was to come home and pack, and then take Flynn's travelling palace (it had been at home getting second battery installed) & pick Flynn up & leave by 1.30 at the latest & get down there in the daylight.

First of all I could't find anything I needed at home, had washed saddle blankets & boots & put them in different parts of the house. Left home at 12.30 only to have the truck battery light come on, so went to Richards work, where we then found a really big oil leak as well. After having a look & realising there was nothing we could do, decided to take a bottle of oil with me & just keep topping it up on way down if necessary. I then decide that I had gotten new tyres on the back at last COF & was supposed to get the wheel nuts tigthened again after x amount of kms which I hadn't done yet, so pulled in there to get them to tighten them up, which they did. I then asked them since they were there, to check the air in my tyres. Lucky I did as my inside back tyre was flat as a pancake. Wheels come off to find that the sidewall has a hole in it. Luckily it can be repaired though, so after putting on a patch, I leave East Tamaki at 3.30 & head out to horse. Fill truck with water & finally get leaving just after 4. Whoops!

Was supposed to be picking up a tub of equilibrium at Matamata, the lady very nicely agreed to take it off my visa & leave the tub outside so that I could still get it as I came through. Thank goodness for daylight savings, didn't hit Matamata until 6.30 & the lovely lady had stayed behind to do long put off after hours work, just so that she could give me the tub. Big ups for GN Hills! Arrived at Rotorua in the dark & promptly missed seeing my name on the yarding list. Luckily Ray came over with a torch & helped me out. Richard then arrived as he had driven down from Auckland seperately. It was raining by this stage & suffice to say the first sleep in the truck was not a pleasant one as I had stupidly parked under trees!

Flynn warmed up very nicely for the dressage, I was starting to get quite hopeful. Until I had to leave the warm up area & go down to the end arena, where he promptly got all wary of his surroundings & tensed up beautifully. Trotted around the arena & did some transitions to try & get his mind back on the job, which mostly worked & he actually started a nice dressage test until he decided to do his usual standard issue left rein canter "elevation" LOL We even got it caught on camera for change. Its always the second stride in canter and I know always know when its coming, please excuse the heinous long reins yes in this photo I am saying oh you little shitbag!Just have to smile sometimes
Lucky for Flynn apart from the canter he actually did some nice work and finished the dressage on 11th place.

We then went & got ready for the SJing. He was quite energetic but still produced a lovely clear round. I think it helps that he still clears them by miles LOL Though we did slip coming into the brown wall filler and I got lost & came in on a bad angle & hit a mud patch right as we took off. Going clear moved us up to 7th place

After a further disastrous evening which involved someone who shall remain nameless locking their keys in the boot with 8 bags of ice in there & my McDonalds in the front seat going cold & having to call someone out to get them to break into a certain Altezza... We then relaxed by watching Pineapple Express with Ray & Debra. Highly entertaining movie!

Sunday morning & thank goodness the weather had cleared up nicely. Flynn warmed up nice & positively, such a change from the horrible gawky pony that used to slide into the first practice fence I would put him at! Love the new version!

Unfortunately I didn't work on my speed though & I let him too long & strung out & fast and it then put him backwards & he got all apprehensive, went too fast through the gateway & tried to charge off up the driveway, by the time I finally managed to get him turned, we missed the nice slope up & had to jump the drainage ditch instead. We then cantered up to the coffin combination & had a run out at the last part of the combination (how embarrassing, probably the smallest jump on the whole course!) He had caught sight of the spectators and just wasn't paying attention at all.
Then it was off over the rest of the course. We had another run out at the second jump in the triple, I had strided it wrong and was aiming for a short upright canter coming into it, however didn't quite get there, which then put him in a bad spot for take off. That teamed with me on his neck, meant that he just couldn't do it and he ran out. Quickly represented and he jumped it beautifully. Jumped beautifully into & out of the water and then did a great superman impersonation over the palisade

So cute, go superman, go!!
With the 2 run outs, we ended up 11th, which is pretty good, however it was a tough course as only half the competitors completed it!

Hunua Horse Trial 21/22 Feb

2009-04-22T14:41:00.001-07:00

Speaking of useless, OMG! I am terrible! I cost us 2nd place :(

I had been going out & having fortnightly lessons with Angela. This has involved changing how I ride & getting Flynn straight, not letting him go out through the right shoulder anymore. Well this has been so good for us, we have more elevation again & very strong powerful trot (when he's not being cocky & evading me by trotting off & ignoring me!!)

Weather was diabolical all week heading into the HT & I was starting to get really nervous with Flynn having no back shoes on with the wet slippery ground. Lucky for us, we were 4th to go in the dressage before it all got too cut up, so he did a lovely dressage test, think from memory it put us 7th? I then raced over to the Sjing and managed to go 2nd, again, trying to avoid slipping over in the mud after too many people had gone through. It was so murky & yuck that it was a real effort for Flynn to pull his legs out of the mud & unfortunately he took a rail in the double. However this was good enough to move us up to 3rd as everybody had many, many rails. So glad we went early!!

Sunday was an early morning as I'd managed to find a farrier to put back shoes on Flynn so that I could whack in the biggest studs I could find. Went and warmed up & decided that it might be safest to jump down the outside line on the fences as the middle was going to be pretty cut up by the time our class got out on to the course. Turned out this was a good idea and Flynn jumped around clear with no loss of footing or anything. However, by saying he jumped around clear, I mean he jumped every jump I put him at. And unfortunately coming out of the water, I thought the roll top was for Pre Novice, so literally pulled him out of it, including saying to him "no Flynn not this one". Wasn't until I walked over to watch the Pre Novice and saw they weren't doing that jump, that I realised that duh, it was mine & I should have jumped it after all. Went back to the board & sure enough, we had a lovely big E next to our name. Which is a shame as the person sitting 2nd in front of us had run outs & we would have finished up in 2nd place at our first Horse Trial back. Mel had very nicely come out & taken photos for me, however it also meant she had to put up with me cursing & swearing and kicking stones all day LOL Thanks Mel for putting up with me!!More photos to come

Papatoetoe 2 Day Event - Pre Training 31 Jan/1 Feb

2009-04-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I've been a little useless at updating my blog, so I can't actually remember how it went, I just know that he did a lovely test to sit top 10, clear SJing to go 6th & then clear XC to finish 5th and get a lovely multicoloured rosette. Yes, yes I am useless :D

Lesson with Angela Lloyd - End of Jan

2009-04-15T01:38:00.000-07:00

Decided if I was going to seriously try & do horse trials again, that I needed to start putting more importance on the lessons and doing stuff correctly for a change, so booked a lesson with Angela Lloyd. I tend to spend my money on competing and have nothing left for lessons, however I do believe that I would be making better use of my budget if I start having fortnightly lessons. Richard very nicely came out with me and took lots of photos.

We started off over a 4 stride line and I had to really work at sitting up & waiting for the fence (hmm, I can see my flop forward & put him off balance routine isn't going to cut the mustard here!!)
I also found out that I am particularly good at stopping riding after the fence as well. I had that down to a fine art, would come over a fence, land & just relax & stop riding until I lined up my next fence where I would sit up and put my legs back on again. To that end, there will be no more letting Flynn plonk along with his back end way out the back and his front end long & out the front LOL I have to get him more connected and get his back legs stepping underneath him better which will help everything, dressage, show jumping and my cross country which will actually have a bit more purpose LOL Not a great photo but he's actually using his butt!
We moved on to some more technical lines, including very tight corners before jumps and I worked on my position a lot more and really worked hard on keeping my legs on at all times. It worked amazingly as all of a sudden Flynn started jumping differently. He started using his back end. I nearly fell off a couple of times as wasn't expecting to pushed out of the saddle quite like that!

Once I got the hang of things, Angela decided it was time to scare me by making us do some XC fences. No pre training warm up fence here, it was straight into the training fences with the big ditch and a few pre novice jumps thrown in as well. We were testing his new found bravery & accuracy (& my riding) by having to jump over a ramp that had hay bales on either side at the top and an upright haybale sitting in the middle of it leaning against the fence, giving you a small area to jump over. Flynn did this first pop, but please ignore my position!! For some reason I completely freaked out right before the jump. Just as well my pony ignores me sometimes! As you can see, he wasn't fussed, he even has his eyes closed We then had to jump a dog kennel with a picket and telegraph pole in the front of it, on an angle to get the 2 strides to the nice roll top behind it
Also had to jump the horrible big ditch Complete with new found enthusiastic back end *sigh*

On the plus side, Flynn has a new admirer, Angela was very complimentary about him (apparently if he goes missing, I'll know whose paddocks to search!) & said lots of nice things which is always really lovely to hear!! Luff my pony, he tried his heart and didn't stop at a single thing! I also felt quite proud of myself as I tried everything she told me to jump without whimping out :D Goal now is to do Pre Novice on him next season and then she can ride him from Novice upwards as I have no interest whatsoever in trying it for myself!

Mangere ODE - Pre Training

2009-02-02T00:42:00.000-08:00

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!

Took Flynn to Mangere for their ODE, wanted to get another run in to make sure he was still fine on the XC course. Left nice & early so that I could get a good park. Warmed up for the dressage & stupidly decided to take complete exception to the way Flynn was going. I am a terrible, terrible mother, I nitpicked & niggled & nagged & the poor pony just couldn't win. I struggled through the whole test with the concept of bending to the inside but still staying out on the track around the arena. Flynn was very patient with me and didn't get upset, which was great. Judge was very nice and we got 29.71% & some lovely comments too. The score was good enough for 5th, so I was really happy with that.

Walked the XC course & nearly had a heart attack. What a hard course! Jump 2 was a bank complex with an upright at the top, and was only about 25m from the start box! Then jump 5 was an upright, 1 stride to a ditch, then 2 strides to another upright. Then down the slight incline to another ditch. Then some nice uprights, on the way to the water. Just before the water was a nice little offset double. The water consisted of a small log on top of the ledge & then a nice ramp out, around the corner to a skinny then 3 strides to the fenceline jump, then 2 more uprights & that was it.

Went over & did the Show Jumping which I thought was going to be a disaster as the cross country course was right next to where we were warming up, and every now & then a horse would come flying past flast stick, which would excite all the horses in the warm up ring. Did our Show Jumping round & went clear which was nice as it was quite a tight course with some good twisty turns.

Then went back to the truck & dithered over whether I should scratch from the XC or not... I really didn't want Flynn to stop at anything as we'd only just got his confidence sorted... After a quick gin & tonic, I decided to just be brave & see how he goes.

Warmed up nicely, no more sliding into the first XC practice jump! They held up the XC while someone was removed from the middle of the ditch combination (EEK!!!) & then again when someone came off headfirst into one of the jumps further on in the course. Finally it was our turn to go & I was starting to feel understandably a little nervous!

Cantered out through the start box & up the nice little upright which was the first jump. Flynn did a massive leap over it & next thing we knew it we were at the bank jump. Flynn hesitated and then leapt up it & out over the upright. We cantered off and did the next few jumps nice & happily. Then it was time to start heading down the slope towards the dreaded ditch combination. I slowed him up a little as he has a tendancy to truck along with his nose out & gets a bit long and fast. Was aiming for trotting into the combination but didn't quite manage it, so had to settle for a nice waiting canter instead. He jumped over the first upright and caught sight of the ditch. Had a bit of a hesitation & then leapt over it & cantered out & jumped over the last upright really nicely. Cantered down to the bigger ditch & just popped over it.

Was starting to feel quite relieved by this stage, we'd just cleared my 2 jumps that I was most concerned about, just the water to go now! He came through the offset double just beautifully & then caught side of the crowd on the bank next to the water jump. It was like he was mesmerised by them as was cantering on to the water and not even looking at it. He just kept staring with his head turned off to the left, gawking at the people on the bank. Finally managed to get his attention away from the crowd about 2 strides before the water, where he suddenly noticed the water & then charged at it. Was the best feeling as I wasn't sure how he'd cope with the addition of the log on the edge but he didn't even seem to notice & did a spectacular leap into the water. Go Flynny!! Big pats as I gathered up my reins & headed off the skinny. Again, he just lined it up & flew over it. Did the last 2 upright fencline jumps & crossed the finish line. Was so estatic, he'd been positive the whole way round (bar the ditch & bank) but even then, never felt like he was actually going to stop, just wanted a better look at them first.

Went & looked at the scoreboard & holy bejaysus, we had won it! Quite a few people had taken rails in the Show Jumping with it being such a tight course & lots of penalty points on the XC, apparently the offset double also claimed quite a few with people going too fast & not being able to complete the turn before the second jump. I was so happy of my orange pony for going clear over such a tough course.
Papatoetoe 2 day this weekend, I hope he goes clear as I am hoping to try the Hunua Horse Trial 2 weeks after that. I think it might be time to give training another go now that we've got the bravery side of it all sorted out. Not keen on trying a PC training course as that might be a bit too hard too soon! Much prefer the easier Horse Trials courses!!

Pointways ODE - Pre Training!

2009-01-29T00:39:00.000-08:00

Did all the practising & downgrading pay off? Yes it did!

Took Flynn to Pointways for the ODE & decided to be brave & enter Pre Training.
The dressage was a disaster as he hadn't been ridden all week & was feeling more than a little "energetic"... We jogged in the walk, trotted too early & cantered in the 20m circle when we were supposed to only be trotting. We still managed reasonably ok marks though as the arena craft was pretty accurate & definitely helped by our 8 for the entry & centreline! Beautiful photos from Kate @ Geegee Photography. I have even just bought my first dressage photo!

Show Jumping was very difficult, you had to come down one line, pull on the handbrake, do a wheelie & then go back up next to that line in the other direction. We went clear, which I was very happy with as it was slippery & he has no back shoes. I just kept thinking "Show Hunter lines, Show Hunter lines!!" while I was going around the course, which definitely helped.

The Cross Country was great, he warmed up nicely, stood quietly in the start box & then slowly cantered up the hill. The only jump he really, really looked at was a white fence stuffed with fresh leafy tree branches, but after a bit of encouragement from 10 strides out, he actually jumped it really nicely. He jumped into the water jump from a canter with only the slightest hesitation, then straight over the trakhener & up the hill. The corner was decorated with more shrubbery on each side, making it quite a narrow space to jump through, but he just lined it up & went for it.

I have to admit I was quite surprised that he crossed the finish line & wasn't even as hot/sweaty as I thought he'd be. I had expected a bit of heavy breathing & white lather due to the steep hill & horrible stinking hot day, but nope, just a patch of sweat on his neck & that was it. Interestingly enough, I think he's fitter than I give him credit for. Whilst I was walking back from the finish line, I saw 2 different people fall off at the water and a few others have stops, so am even more proud that he jumped straight in, as the water is quite small & relatively well known for getting a few stops...

The dressage score had put us about 11th, and the clear Show Jumping and Cross Country put us into 3rd, so very proud of my pony!!

XC Schooling with Karley & Mel

2009-01-26T00:29:00.000-08:00

Decided it was a good idea to try & consolidate Flynn's new bravery (& mine!!) so joined in with Mel, and had a cross country lesson with Karley Windlebourne.

Flynn decided today was the day to show off his new elevated canter (think knees past his ears) & kept napping towards Cobs by throwing out his shoulder. After a few episodes of us not agreeing on the direction we were taking, I decided that enough was enough & gave him a smack on the shoulder. Well that got an unfavourable reaction from the ginga, so gave him another smack, which got a bigger less favourable reaction. So decided that it was prudent to win this one, so with a slightly smaller smack, we managed to complete the turn with no more acrobatics and carried on for the rest of the lsson with no more napping. I really think that I have been quite blissfully unaware of how his previous small episodes when ignored, can really turn into something a bit bigger now that he's older. Here is him jumping just after the little "battle of minds" as you can see he's still a bit pissy hehehe
So anyway, on with the lesson with the new & improved attitude from my orange sidekick.

Karley had us walking down the ramp into the water & just let him stand there & enjoy it, then we started jumping in & out. He did however have a bit of an oopsy at the start of the water jump practice where he biffed himself in to land on all 4s at the same time, however managed to scrape his leg down the wood of the water jump, which moved the boot up his leg & took off all the hair. He was fine however, so we carried on with the lesson. After a while, Flynn decided he was really happy with the water and ended up jumping in & out from where ever we asked him. We ended up doing a cool little combination with a jump 2 strides out from the water, dropping in, then jumping out. You could really tell when he was getting more confident and relaxed as the jumps in & out where getting tidier & tidier.

Jane got some lovely photos of Flynn & Cobs pawing the water, same leg, same expression, its definitely one for the wall!!

It was really interesting in that once Flynn's confidence in the water was 100% sorted, he really became quite the different horse out over the other jumps, he jumped everything I put him out, without hesitation. Karley ended up having us jumping a few open fences as well, which was a bit scarey but completely doable!
Pre Training Corner
Open Corner. Shame the grass is long, this jump is horribly massive!! I had 2 run outs that were rider inspired when I discovered I had left my brave undies at home! But once I changed my line into it, all of a sudden it wasn't a problem & we flew over it! Jumped it a couple more times to prove that it wasn't a fluke haha

Then it was on to another personal dislike of mine, drop fences! Luckily for me, Karley let me do the Pre Training one first, but after that was done, it was straight on to the training version. Geebers, I do not like drops! I managed to talk her out of me doing the open one though, which I was super relieved about!

Unfortunately during the lesson, Flynn managed to lose a shoe, however nobody picked up on it as he never once was ouchy or short. Karley said very nice things about Flynn, she even said he was quite bold, which had me laughing, I had to admit that was the first time anyone had ever called Flynn bold, so I am really starting to feel like I've done him a bit of a disservice with helping him be the whimp he was... I do have to wonder what he'd have been like with a bolder XC rider!

Unfortunately the next day Flynn had a back leg like an elephant, so we had to scratch from the registered Show Hunter out at Pukekohe.

Pony Club Camp - Waerenga 11/12 January

2009-01-25T23:57:00.000-08:00

Well I decided to continue Flynn's education and took him to PC camp to play with the kids. This year it was held at Waerenga, so meant that I could put more time into practicing the stream crossings that we had so many issues with at the Waerenga Horse Trial. We went down on the Friday night and straight away went out for a hack across the farm. Made Flynn jump into the empty water jump which he wasn't at all phased about. He was however still really not happy about crossing the creek. After about 10 trips back and forward through the creek, he eventually just started marching through them. About freaking time! Took him back in & gave him dinner.

The next morning we had games with the kids, we had a trotting race, onion & spoon race (no eggs), 3 legged race and barrel race. Was such a laugh watching all the adults trying their hand at the games (quite a few of our adult ride went down to camp this year which made it a whole heap of fun!!) Flynn decided he quite liked the barrel race & we came away with 2nd place behind a mentally zippy pony hehehe. I have to say, I do really love my horse, how many have one fast enough to be competitive with the ponies, yet still stand on the buckle dozing with horses galloping past them at the finish line?

We then had to the gamblers stakes. Only problem is that it was filled with scarey jumps, including a jump where the whole top pole was covered in balloons (about 12) & they were all waving in the wind. We were 2nd to go & I figured that that jump would be the one worth the most points, so decided to go straight at it first so that if I could get him over it, we'd then be able to do it a few times over the minute that we had. Naturally Flynn freaked out about the jump but after a few dithering seconds in front of it, realised that I wasn't going to back off & that jumping it was the only option. So he unceremoniously threw himself over it. Seems to be his new habit, if in doubt, do a really unstylish body hiff over it!

So we carried on with the course, jumped the single half barrel on its side, the line of 20L water containers, the tyres etc, etc & managed to do a great line of 3 jumps that were on the most extreme angle possible whilst still being able to not hit the jumps stands. The last jump of this line just happened to be the balloons which was handy. Then the 10second bell rang, so we went down the line one more time, with the balloon jump last. Only problem is that by this stage after jumping it a few times, Flynn was pretty lazy & took it out with his back legs, knocking the pole off & popping every balloon bar 2. Sounded like fireworks going off, which didn't even worry him. In fact, out of the 30 odd horses, only 1 old boy had a spaz & even then it was over & done with in seconds. Only problem is that they had no replacement ballons & with me being 2nd to go, nobody else had to do the hard version of the balloon jump so everyone merrily sailed over it with no problems. I was proud that nobody could match my 3 jump line though hehehe. We ended up winning on 76 points, with the next person on 68.

Was so much fun & again, I was so proud of the big change in Flynn, he would never have jumped the balloon jump a year ago, he would have created a right song & dance & spent hours telling me all the reasons why he couldn't possibly jump it.

Then that night we took the horses out for a light XC schooling session, including some big jumps in the fence lines and practicing the empty water jump again. By the end of it, I had Flynn jumping the pre novice water combination, in over the upright jump in front, jumping into the water, out of the water & out over the last upright jump. He didn't stop at anything, the only thing that was holding us back at that point were my own nerves!

The next morning we got up & went for a nice bareback ride around the farm, had a few canters and jumped the gamblers stakes jumps again. I do like bareback riding, really should do more of it on Flynn as he really seems to enjoy it.

Then it was home time for some much needed sleep!

Christmas Time - Flynn has another break

2009-01-25T23:55:00.001-08:00

As we were off to Masterton for 10 days, figured it would be good for Flynn to have another break. As he is now on 4 weekly shoeing, I had to get him shod before I went away at 3 weeks as I am now way too paranoid to let him go to 5 weeks! So had my grazing owner Cheryl feeding him every 2nd day for me. Figured he could go onto resticted rations while he was not being ridden!

Henderson Valley PC ODE 21st December

2009-01-25T23:25:00.000-08:00

Entered Flynn into the Intro class at the Henderson Valley PC. To this date, we have never ever done a clear XC, with constant stops at water & anything ditchy. Figured it was time to start from the beginning & see if I can fix what I've broken by pushing him into doing Horse Trials before he was ready. Shame as he's such a brilliant jumper that I paid no attention to actually doing any homework on bravery etc & dealing with the scarey jumps at the baby levels. At least with intro I can be a lot braver too!

Did our dressage which was just lovely, he did a super test, very responsive & light, we came away with 3rd equal after the dressage.

Went clear SJing (as I'd bliddy well hope!!!) but did have a moment at the planks when he went to stop & then threw himself over them LOL

Then it was time for the XC.

He warmed up really nicely & confidently, which actually surprised me as he can put in a silly stop at his first presentation at an XC fence. They have a lovely brown jump covered in coloured hand prints that he took exception to at the warm up last time we were there a year ago, however he didn't even blink at it this time. Just goes to show he's really starting to get a lot more confident. Quite exciting really!
Anyway, we went into the XC paddock where he started napping a little, he wanted to go back to the other horses. When I wouldn't let him & gave him a tap with the whip, I was treated to a completely over the top reaction of a full height rear, complete with one leg delicately stretched out. So once he came down he got another smack & was driven forward to the start box. Funny how they can be so dramatic sometimes. Quietly wandered into the start box & stood quietly waiting to be counted down. Had to do a big pony club kick to get him going, think he was tired out after the slow motion acrobatic display LOL

Well I have to say, he gave me the BEST cross country ride that I have ever had on him. He was forward (yes, time to change the bit again, he wasn't so keen on listening at all between the jumps) & actually locked on to each jump & took me into them. He didn't spook or gawk at a single thing, didn't even hesitate to go down the hills or over the scarey bridge out the back, even though there were spectators on sitting on the jump next to the one we had to do. Water was an option, you could either do the bank complex next to it & stay dry, or go down the ramp into the water and out the other side. Decided since the day was definitely for practicing and getting bold, we did the water. What did surprise me however was the fact that he just charged on in to the water. Didn't want to slow down & was happy to just have a look as he was going. Trotted in like he'd been doing it all his life! I had the biggest grin on my face by the time we'd finished, shock horror, I'd actually just enjoyed the cross country part!!

Ended up second, which was a lovely end to a very sucessful day in the personal best department, I was so proud of my pony, he really felt like he was starting to get the hang of it all. I guess being 6 now means he's a big boy after all?

Farriers Visit

2009-01-25T23:24:00.001-08:00

So John came out & shod Flynn, agreed that the toe was too long & lopped it all off! He said that Flynn does have slightly uneven feet & he'd been trying to even them up a little, but will try & do that whilst keeping the toes short at the same time. So onwards & upwards from here. Flynn is loving the break, nothing like sitting around doing nothing & still getting fed every day!

Vet - John Ewen

2009-01-25T23:15:00.000-08:00

So I got the vet out to give Flynn a once over, got bloods done to check selenium, magnesium etc. Had a chat about the oats and the over the top spooking and he said every horse can have a different reaction to different things and to try him off the oats & see how he goes. I then mentioned how Flynn was extremely hard to get going & that the oats were to pep him up a little & that we'd had a decent crash at the SH on the weekend, so what was going on?

He did point out that altough the levels in Flynn's feet were spot on, he did say that the toes were way too long. He proved it by doing a flexion test and Flynn spazzing out as soon as he started prodding and poking around.

End prognosis was extremely sore shoulders, and extremely honest pony for trying to carry on like he was, when he was pretty much walking on his heels and overusing the wrong parts of his body. I was mortified, but as he pointed out, Flynn was only sitting at 5 weeks, wasn't even due for shoeing for another week and that a lot of people do it. Didn't help but we put him on bute for a week as the farrier couldn't get out earlier. Time for a mini break for the McFlynder!

Adult Ride Mini Course - SJing with Ana Rattray 25/26 November

2008-12-15T11:45:00.001-08:00

Its great being part of the Papatoetoe Adult Ride, you end up getting heaps of opportunities to ride with different instructors. For the mini course you could chose to either 2 days of dressage, SJ or cross country. I picked to do Show Jumping with Ana Rattray (Cheleken Stud)

Tuesday turned up & started warming up. Flynn felt a little tight & nappy, however worked out of it quite nicely, although stayed a little argumentative about somethings, however completely perked up once the jumps got higher. Ana said he was a lovely jumper with a super front end, but our flat work needs more work, we need to be more adjustable through our paces. She also suggested that maybe a martingale would help as there were times where I'd ask him to wait & he'd disagree & charge on with his head in the air instead, only bringing it down 1 stride out from the jump. Not ideal at all. He was also over the top spooky at the jumps.

After the lesson I had a chat to a friend of mine & started putting 2 & 2 together. I do wonder if the oats are not having the good effect that I was hoping? Since starting them, all I had gained was a horse that was not any more energetic, he was just more spooky instead... Figured maybe it was time for a vet visit to do some bloods, so booked the vet in for Thursday. Made sure Flynn had no oats for dinner that night!

Wednesday Flynn was a lot better, warmed up nicely & actually stayed polite through the jumping. Ana commented that he was the total opposite to the night before, was there possibly something going on with him? I told her about the oats theory & that I was getting the vet out the next day for blood tests etc. Got taught a few more great exercises to try at home to have the horse really listening and am also going to get a few more lessons off Ana in the new year as she's keen to come up & teach at PC every couple of weeks if I can get a group together. So proud that she likes my pony :D :D

Pukekohe 2 day Show Hunter Show 22/23 November

2008-12-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

Yay! My first show away in the truck! How exciting! Took it into work during the week and they redid all the gas fittings in the accomodation, replacing the garden hose with proper gas hose (eeek!!) & putting in a new gas cooker. So I made sure I went out & bought milk so that I could actually make myself a cup of coffee! Man I could get used to this!! Tested the fridge & found that whilst it no longer works off the gas setting, it does still work off the battery setting, so made sure I switched it on as I was warming the truck up & turned it off an hour after getting to the show, so as to have it as cold as possible, for as long as possible.

Had decided after Flynn being very flat for the dressage the week before, that maybe he needs heating up a bit? Went out & bought some oats to see if they would help. Didn't make any difference in energy at all, but noticed he was spooking a bit more than normal.

Got out to Pukekohe & had a casual morning plaiting up, drinking cups of cofee & watching the other classes. Got ready and went over to warm up for the 1m class. Flynn felt a bit hesitant coming into the practice fence the first few times but warmed out of it, so I didn't give it another thought. Went into the 1m class & had a right disaster, he gawked at every single fence coming into them, and then had a rearing fit when he took exception to a large area of dirt in the corner of the ring. He managed to get himself extremely wound up & upset over it, but eventually after about 2 minutes of standing on the spot waving his legs around, he finally went past it, but kept a good eye on it LOL Funnily enough we got 20% for that round *blushes*

Then in the 1.05m, I'm not sure what happened, but for the first time in his life, he actually dive bombed the jumps. We had quite a few rails in that class, including landing in the middle of the oxer, even though we'd taken off from a normal stride. 40% in that class & it left me very confused and wondering if I should still do the 1.10m or not... Decided to give it a crack & I could always retire during it, should he carry on the way he was. Turns out he wanted to do the 1.10m class as well, did a lovely round, for 6th place and 75%. So toddled off home, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Figured maybe he was a bit off his game from being in the paddock with no grass the night before, so doubled the oats, gave him a blud sachet & threw him in the usual grassy paddock.

Went back out to Pukekohe the next morning & got ready for the 1m class. He warmed up nicely on the flat, nice & foward & big powerful trot everywhere, so was hoping the day before was put behind us. However still jumped the practice fence a bit weird. Went into the 1m class & I have to say, I have never had such a short round before! We went over jump 1 after looking at it from miles back (just a plain brown upright too!) then we stopped at the white upright coming into the 6 stride line. I whacked him, we circled & went over it then 2nd time. Then he slid into the white oxer. As in through it. I quite retired & left the ring. That was really, really weird, Flynn's never done that before, if he stops, its a stop & spin at the last second, where as he backed off the whole way down the line & then 1 stride out just put on the picks, with no attempt to dive to the left like he usually does.

Decided to do the 1.05m to see what happened, however we didn't even get as far as the third jump. The white line was again jumps 2 & 3 in the ring. We came into the white upright and he backed off, I growled, he went to go, then went to stop, then thought better of it & tried to jump it, only by this stage we were nearly at a standstill, so he got his front end completely over it, then decided to go backwards instead of forwards. Hooked the pickets with his front legs & pulled them back towards him, got a fright from the pickets & poles coming with him, and leapt to the left, which then took out the jump stand and then took off across the ring. Goodness knows how I managed to stay on. I retired & then scratched from the next class & took him home.

Adult Ride Dressage & SJ Comp 16 Nov

2008-12-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

Decided to be brave & entered Flynn in his first Novice test. It had lengthening in both trot & canter, as well as some leg yielding, so figured it would be an interesting test to say the least! Well for the week leading up to the comp, Flynn honestly went the best he has ever gone on the flat, his 'few lengthened strides' in trot felt great, however we did have one moment where I asked him to lenghten canter down the longside & he got a bit excited & his knees came past his ears. Only problem was that the next movement was a 15m circle. Hahaha that was fun! Had a quick jump the night before the comp as I don't tend to jump at home, figure he knows how to do it, no point over jumping his little leggies...
Day of comp, lovely, lovely day. Tootled off down to Adult Ride in the truck (man I love my truck hahaha) & parked up so Flynn could stand in the shade. Had to get there early as judge was using my truck as the judges box, so Flynn had to stand around for a little while before we were on. Got him ready for the dressage & hopped on & started warming up. He was going so nicely, quite like he was showing off actually, felt great! Then it all turned to custard when we entered the dressage arena. He dropped behind my leg & napped the whole way up the centreline, tried to cut the corner at the top, which resulted in a bit of an argument & then the test went downhill from there. After arguing the whole way round, he then tried to launch into the canter, which resulted in a halt on the spot, which thankfully then sorted him out. He carried on nice enough after that, but our test was well & truly stuffed LOL. Got 59%. Have decided with him being sooo flat, that I might give oats a try at giving him a touch more energy.

Then it was time for the SJing. I stuffed that up too, thought we had a 1.05m class but they decided on the day due to only 2 riders, 1 in the 95 & me in the 1.05m, that we might as well both ride in the 95cm. Sorry Flynn, not much of a warm up there!! Flynn woke up & did a lovely round, however stupid, stupid mother, jumped an extra jump in the jump off! DUH!

Then everyone was nice enough to put the jumps up so that we could have a play over some bigger stuff. Most of the jumps are 1.10, with a couple being 1.15m. Sadly my position is very lacking, so its time for me to bite the bullet & get some lessons. I'm just not stable enough and would hate for it affect Flynn anymore than it does LOL As you can see we got in a little close to the blue upright LOL still can't believe he cleared it

Time to give XC another go

2008-11-15T01:41:00.000-08:00

Decided after the disaster of Flynn being scared of the XC jump at Clevedon A&P, it was time to have an XC school to remind him that there is more in life to jump, than just coloured poles & pretty flowers. So arranged to go round the Papatoetoe course with Jannine. Just pottered around over the intro fences and only had one moment were he stopped & gawked but thankfully it was so low that I could just get him to pop over it from a standstill. Think we might go out & do some intro ODEs over summer as we never really going confidently on the XC course last season, stops all over the show, we never did get a clear round, so maybe its time to go back to basics now that he's finally grown a somewhat sensible brain & put some effort into creating his brave button...

Clevedon A&P

2008-11-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Last year I went and watched Tara and Lynette competing at the Clevedon A&P and decided it looked like fun, so entered Flynn in this years one, to give us something different to do. Figured it would be good for Flynn to get out in a different atmosphere, so entered the sporthorse classes, including the inhand classes.

However. I didn't think it through very well. Had a big OH SHYITE moment a few weeks out when I realised I had no idea what I was going to wear, or even what colour gear to use. Debra & Dana very kindly leant me all their flash black gear, however I then realised that I have a brown saddle for the ridden classes, so needed to stick with brown. However I didn't own an "A&P appropriate" browband as I'd attacked my ribbon browband with scissors LOL. Whoops. Kyrie was a godsend and leant me her lovely cream browband with diamantes on it. I got Chris at Horsesports to order in a silver chain to attach my single plaited Sparrow rein for my inhand bridle, Jenny went out to Pukekohe and got me a brown number holder, and that was Flynn's gear sorted. Then out of the blue, I had a revelation that I hadn't sorted myself out anything to wear. DUH! Rach VERY, VERY nicely sent me a grey suit to wear for inhand, I managed to find a lovely little hat, bought some new gloves & bobs your uncle, I'm pretty much sorted!

Jannine gave me some clear highlighter to play around with and on the Saturday, I decided to just give Flynn a quick wash as would give him a better all over wash on the Sunday morning. Hahaha so glad I did, by the time I got all my gear organised on the Sunday morning, I had completely run out of time to give him another wash. Started plaiting and carefully sewed up my plaits, only to find that nope, as much as I thought I could, I definitely can't sew LOL So redid all my plaits & just used rubber bands. Had planned on leaving paddock around 12, to give him time to soak up the atmosphere before we were on at 1pm. Hahahahaha left paddock at 12.45. Gawd I'm useless!! Got there, raced around getting ready, with Flynn swinging off his leadrope as the polo players and the bagpipes had upset him. Lead my now piaffing horse, over the sporthorse ring, only to find out that we 15 classes before ours. Went back over to truck & redid hoof oil & brushed his head & got myself sorted out properly. So glad we didn't have to go straight in haha!
Flynn eventually settled, and even contemplated having a sleep, which was refreshing,
except he kept sidling over to me & trying to have a cuddle & everytime I stepped away he's sidle closer again. After giving him a smack on the shoulder, he gave up on that & kept his distance. Contented himself with smooching all over 2 young girls that wanted to pat the "goldfish pony" LOL the dad was an ex polo player and was quite impressed with how Flynn was just letting his 2 little girls stick their fingers up his nose & pat him all over. Eventually it was our turn to go into the ring and Flynn woke up. Unfortunately... cause then he thought it would be funny to charge & canter & shake your head threateningly in the trot up in the first 2 classes. 15 horses in the ring and the only funnyman had to be mine. *sigh*

Got the hang of just trotting though, in time to get 2nd for suitability for SJing

Judge was very complimentary, said he would have been first, he has the perfect back end, but that his front end doesn't quite match, he needs to fill out a fraction. Which is great, as Claire McGowan said he's got 1 more growth spurt to go & will fill out his front end nicely.

Then it was time for the 3 ridden classes I'd entered. Only 4 in these classes, had a feeling we were going to be a bit embarrassed & sure enough, we were! LOL We bombed out in the first 2, Flynn got a bit excited & very elevated in his canter, so suffice to say we weren't placed for the dressage one LOL He then packed a screaming hissy fit at the intro xc oxer we had to jump for suitability for jumping, so again, we were 4th out of 4 LOL. Then it was the SJing class and thank gawd he got his act together & jumped very nicely, to get 2nd. Judge was again very complimentary, saying his antics had let him down in the previous 2 classes, but she was hoping to see him out & about next year when he's a bit more mature as he had really nice movement, just needed to be a bit more settled. So lovely hearing that from someone I haven't paid PMSL

Was a great day though & I have to say, I'd be very keen to give it another go sometime!!

Flynn gets a travelling palace

2008-11-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

After competing down in Cambridge in the pouring down rain, hail and thunder, I decided enough was enough and I am not doing the car and float thing anymore. With both me & Lynette there, the float was full of 2 lots of wet horsegear, 2 lots of wet people gear & there was just no way of hiding from the weather. So I came home & started hinting to Richard that maybe a truck might be a really, really good idea... Then as I was browsing TM, I came across the cutest little 2 horse truck. It already had the basics, accommodation, fridge, cooker, running water in sink, hot water washdown, shower etc. Its a 3L Ford Trader, so definitely gutless, goal is to change cabs on it in a years time to something more powerful, but in the meantime, it will definitely do!! It passed its prepurchase inspection and came home with me.

And so far I've managed to successfully drive it into my car... Yes, yes, laugh it up, my Ford truck ate my Holden Commodore :( Was a big wake up call when trying to do a reverse hill start whilst turning with no powersteering. Thought I'd left enough room & went to go forwards, only to my horror that I couldn't turn it in time before it smacked into the back of my car. Funny now, but I was in tears at the time LOL

Its got a good size box with a raised roof and is 2.2m wide, but the dividers pretty much go straight across & Flynn's a bit long for that, so he's currently travelling with the middle divider pushed over against the first one to give him 1 1/2 spaces and he's happy as larry. Luffs his truck, he's walking up the ramp before I've even gotten myself organised, you can throw the leadrope over his head & he goes & turns himself around & everything. Its very cute.

Adult Ride Show Jumping Lesson

2008-11-02T01:42:00.000-07:00

Had a group Show Jumping lesson courtesy of adult ride with Jacob Razak (Currently riding grandprix) He set up a few related lines which we had to vary our striding down, which was a lot of fun. Flynn even had his listening ears on! Found out that by just sitting & doing nothing, he would lenghten his stride, no need for kicking on or flapping as he already has a really long canter stride. We found getting in the extra stride a little harder, but once we got the hang of it, we were away laughing.

We then moved onto the next exercise, over a small jump, roll back & up through the line, putting in either 4 or 5 strides as requested, then another roll back at the other end. Once Flynn figured out exactly what his job was, he started really enjoying himself. When Flynn enjoys himself and thinks he's done something clever, he starts leaping around. So after nailing the exercise, we had funny canter with knees flying past his ears.

Jacob said that he was very talented & should be able to go grandprix in a few years, which was very, very cool to hear. Also said he'd compete him for me as I'm apparently wasting him LOL So might take him up on that offer later in the season

Waikato Show Hunter 26th October

2008-10-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

I luff my pony!!
Took him down to our first registered Show Hunter outing of the season. Left horribly early in the morning, we were picked up from the paddock at 5.15 as the weather was completely disgusting and we wanted to get there early to try & get a good park. Got there early & decided to change my entry. Had originally entered 2x open hunter 1m classes, open hunter 1.05m & 1.10m high points class. Changed from 1 of the 1m classes to 90cm so that I could have an easier first class. Quickly plaited up in the rain as had gone from the 5th class to the 2nd, not giving myself a lot of time to get ready. It stopped raining as I got on thankfully and we headed off.

The 90cm class was very interesting. Normally Flynn's first class at Show Hunter is spent reminding him that neutral coloured fences are not to be galloped at like XC fences... however not this time... He started off absolutely perfectly, had a beautiful steady uphill canter going, took off each time really nicely in the right spot etc, until we came into the 5 stride line, at which point he tried to take off with me into it. Asked him to slow down but there was nobody home. I sat up after the first jump and gave him the biggest half halt I could, which effectively sat him on his ass & then let him forward again. End result was 6 strides in a 5 stride line. He did however land after the second fence and continued on like an angel, no more rushing and listened very nicely. We got a score of 70% (14th place) so very happy with that effort except for the middle, such a shame!

Took him back to the float and untacked him. Just got his waterproof cover on when it started hailing. Mmmm, lovely weather! Hid in the float for a while before heading over to the ring to watch Lynette. After 4 seasons passed in the next hour, it was time to get ready for the 1m class. Of course it absolutely poured down as I got ready, but again stopped when I got on.

The 1m class was very rushy the whole way round and a bit disunited after he decided he couldn't possibly finish his flying change with all 4 legs going in the same direction, but he jumped very nicely, getting a score of 72.5 & 8th place.

The 1.05m class was much nicer, he was listening a lot better, less rushy & more settled. However unfortunately I bought him back to trot in our warm up circle which gave us the obligatory 65% score. Stupid mother!!

Then whilst warming up for the last class we had everything. Hail, thunder and pouring rain. Thankfully it stopped after 15 minutes, but it was certainly very uncomfortable for a little while there!! Also thankfully the SH group were wonderful and kept moving the jumps sideways every few classes so that when you went in you weren't having to deal with horribly pugged up take offs.

The 1.10m high points class made the whole day worthwhile though. He jumped nicely, was lovely & consistent in the middle & was just generally a very nice ride. What was even nicer, was that we got placed! We got 5th, on a score of 77.5%, which earnt us 1 point. What a luffly clever pony he was! And another plus is that he didn't drop a rail in any of the classes, despite the heavy conditions, so I think its safe to say his muscles are fixed!

Photos by Take The Moment - www.takethemoment.co.nz

I can ride again!!

2008-10-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

After having some serious doubts as to whether I was going to be able to ride again anytime soon, I went to see Lynette who gave me some great stretches to do on my arms. After that, since I could actually fully extend my arms & move them again, I decided to go & have a ride on Flynn, to see if there was any chance I would be able to ride him at the Show Hunter this weekend after all...

Turns out that not only can I ride, I can jump too!! I started off by putting out 2 poles & practiced cantering over them and getting 3 strides and 4 strides in the middle. What a hard exercise that was! Flynn had his slightly non-listening ears on, as he's still not 100% balanced on his left rein canter, but tried really hard on the right rein. We are also able to complete flying changes on both reins, albeit after a few "enthusiastic attempts from the back end", but no more going back to trot to get the correct lead anymore, which is fantastic!! I don't think its going to be too long until he can do them properly. He already has the left lead to right lead pretty much sorted, its just the right to left he gets muddled with. Not helped by the fact that his butt muscles still sorting themselves out. With it all going so well, I decided I might as well try & see if jumping was possible & it was! Which was great, he wanted to tank into the small upright, but after a few canter/walk and canter/halt transitions in a few places including coming into the jump, he learnt that maybe it was better to just wait instead of trying to take over.

Onwards & upwards from here!!

Flynn the DQ?

2008-10-20T18:20:00.001-07:00

Well with me being out of action, Karen has been doing an absolutely spectacular job of schooling Flynn for me. So much so in that he is already a lot more balanced and responsive and straight.

His trot has improved out of sight, now that he is straighter, he has developed a lovely big trot, complete with a bit of elevation! No more shuffling for us!

He can also now maintain a frame when you give away the rein for a few strides!

Flynn has a makeover

2008-10-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I went with Karen out to the orange pony, where he then proceeded to have a complete makeover. Karen pulled his mane, clipped his legs, beard and all the wispy hairs off. He then got a bath & slathered in some staysound as he had come in with 2 swollen legs. Not sure what he was doing in the paddock! Here are some photos after his bath

Poor Flynny!

2008-10-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

Took Flynn to Claire McGowan yesterday as he's been disuniting a lot when asking for flying changes & doing the odd buck when asking for canter. Turns out he's ripped his stabiliser muscle in his butt on the near side. Hence only sometimes being silly & not constantly silly, still being able to jump etc, etc. Apparently its not a muscle they use all the time, only when its needed, so very easy to miss when its been damaged. I feel so bad, she thinks he would have done it a few months ago, so its a week of no canter, lots of lateral trot walk (thank god he likes sideways work!) & lots of massage for 3 weeks. Thankfully it is a relatively easy fix as although its not a muscle in constant use, it is full of nerves, so will come right nicely. Next show still on track for Show Hunter at Leamington 26th October as ok'd by Claire. I have my op on Tuesday, so for 3 weeks Karen will be riding him & making a DQ & I'll pretty much start riding a few days before the show.

Flynn Can Fly!!

2008-09-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

Had an Adult Ride rally at PC on Sunday, which was a games rally. We had a blast walking between covers on poles, going through zigzag poles etc. Did the barrel race and proved you can go really fast when disunited LOL Then after that it was the jumping games and we did the Barrel Jump & Tip & Out.
Barrel Jump was a lot of fun, started off with 3 barrels on their sides, then took one out each time until we got down to 1 barrel. Cleared that & then put 2 upright barrels side by side. Cleared those 2 as did a few others including one of our resident dressage queens, so a lot of laughs were had with that one.
Then onto the Tip & Out. We just had the 1 pole, no fill, no ground line, no nothing. Was up against Jannine's lovely boy Rumble with Claire on board, so in no time we were over the 1m mark. Going up 2 holes at a time, it got very hairy, very quickly & before we knew it, we were at the top of the jump stand on 1.49m!! I honestly thought he was going to go under it, he put his head down & got very deep, before taking over & clambering out over the top, leaving it standing. Not sure how that happened!!! Photos courtesy of Ross Vaughan.

Paddock Ride

2008-09-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we set up the jumps paddock with all the jumps again, as they were taken down over winter. We set up the walls etc & on Wednesday, Karen came up with the video camera. We worked on keeping Flynn on a waiting stride, instead of a bowling on with no control stride. Seemed to work quite well & Karen's given me some exercises to do, which will help as well. We put some of the jumps right up to 1.15m, which was exciting & Flynn didn't miss a beat. I really think he's gotten so much more confident in himself which is really nice.

September 2008 - 1* Show Jumping at Woodhill Sands

2008-09-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

The season has started! YAY!! Be interesting to see how this season pans out, there are not many SJ/SH shows in the Auckland area this season & I have promised myself I'm not travelling too far this season with petrol being what it is. We're a bit tight at the moment as the higher grocery & feed bills are eating into the last of our disposal income. Anyway, decided to be creative and did some baking to take with me to Woodhill Sands as it was going to be a long day. Was going to do our first ever 1.10m, the plan was to enter the first class (1.05m) and the last class (1.10m) Got up at 5.30 & packed the car and headed out to the pony. Washed his legs and tail and ended up leaving the paddock much later than planned. It then took me longer than planned to get to Woodhill Sands, so I missed doing the first class as arrived 5 minutes before it started. They offered to let me still put in a late entry for it, but would have had to have ridden first & it just wasn't worth the stress, that trying to get ready in time would have caused. So I entered the 1m instead & relaxed & went & watched my friends ride instead! Much more pleasant! The baking was a success too!
Poor Flynn though, we were 42nd to go in the class and didn't end up riding until 3pm. He warmed up very, very nicely, all Karen's hard work on the dressage is really paying off! Photos courtesy of Mel

Then it was our turn, we trotted nicely into the ringAnd had a mild gawk at the judges

And that was the end of the manners. We cantered our circle, the bell rang and he was off! Flynn decided that the speed best set for this course would be a quick tanking canter, whilst being on his forehand and heavily leaning on my hands. No amount of half halts were getting through to him. He jumped nice enough

But I ended up deliberately asking the impossible of him in the jump off as I really wanted him to come back to earth, so instead of doing a big circle around, I made him dog leg a corner, only he wasn't listening & fought right the way up the jump & jumped it hollow & knocked it with his stifles. Silly pony! Was really nicely behaved after that & waited very politely!! Funny that!! Then it was about an hour before our next class, so went back to the float, only to find out that the horse parked next to us, had kicked in the back window of its owners Prado. Glad we weren't around then!! Finally the time came round for the 1.10m. They split the class in half and had each half jumping in each ring as the training ring had finished. I ended up riding at 5.30 and got a lovely clear first round, with 2 rails in the jump off. Both of them my fault, so very, very happy with our first attempt. I wasn't nervous, he didn't feel overfaced and all in all, it was the perfect start to our season. Rock on the next show!!

August 2008 - Karen starts riding Flynn

2008-09-25T15:27:00.001-07:00

It has started, the process where Flynn gets morphed into a dressage horse... My friend Karen has started riding Flynn twice a week as she sold her lovely elementary dressage horse & wanted a new project without having to commit to buying another horse. We have taken some before photos as have also started him on Muscle Max as he lost a bit of weight over the last part of winter due to having nothing but mud to eat... Excuse the bad grainy quality of the photos, was taken with my cell phone.

Winter 2008 - Winter Show Jumping at Papatoetoe PC

2008-09-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

Figured since Flynn had had quite a stop start summer season, with all his abscesses etc that I would keep him in work over winter to do the winter show jumping series at Papatoetoe PC (Formerly the NRM Series). It was every 3rd Sunday and I worked I could give him a week off after each one & still keep him fit enough to compete at them. This way giving a good balance between still being in work & still being able to have a break. I also figured he knew how to jump, so didn't jump him at home until the day before each one, just spent the time really working on our flat work and trying to get it nice & sorted before the new season started. We didn't get any ribbons at the series, but managed a top 10 finish in every class we entered, so finished the series in 15th place out of 69 entrants over the series. Had a couple of intersting days, had to do our first ever liverpool & our first ever skinny SJ. What a good boy, he just came round the corner, lined them up & just jumped them without hesitating. I honestly think that he's finally clicked on & starting to trust me, to just do what I've asked of him. Here are some random photos from the series, all of the photos are 1.05m except the orange upright which is 95cm. Photos care of Jannine

April 2008 - Te Rapa HT

2008-09-24T14:04:00.001-07:00

Last chance to qualify. Will we do it? He's been going really well, dressage feels sorted, SJing has been sorted for a while & surely he'll go clear on the XC this time round, he's been over everything before??
We were 12th after dressage, clear in the SJing

Then Sunday happened. I think I would really much prefer eventing if you didn't have to do XC LOL Nice hard course today, lots of ditches, combinations & a lovely massive corner. Excellent!
Left the start box & jumped the first 4 jumps & then headed up to the trakhener. I actually wasn't worried about this, as he'd jumped it last year without even looking at it, so wasn't even in a defensive sitting up position coming into it. I can honestly say that he wasn't feeding off my nerves on this one, I really wasn't worried about it. Turns out I should have been.
He came into it flatout & then at the last possible nano-second, he stopped, dropped his should & turned himself inside out & headed back in the other direction. No way was I able to stay with that & managed to cannon off in great style. Didn't land in the ditch, so that was a good start. Got up, dusted myself off & jumped into the landrover, were I was driven to the start box & reunited with my snot of a horse.
Got back on & galloped back out again. Galloped past the trakhener as at this stage, my new found confidence was severely goneburger & I knew I wouldn't be able to bluff my way over that & didn't want any more stops to destroy any more of my remaining low levels of confidence. Came down the hill & jumped the double nicely with the skinny at the back

Then carried on to the bank complex & then the water. I'm a little angry now as have started to feel a bit achey, so growled & made Flynn jump straight in the water off the ledge, which he did with no hesitations, then off to our first small coffin comination. Straight over that & out to the offset double, did that beautifully, as well as all the rest of the course. Sailed over the big coffin combination out the back, over the big corner. Finished up after going over everything clear (bar the trakhener) & was actually quite happy with Flynn. Packed up float & headed home, slightly gutted that we hadn't qualified but optimistic in that it didn't really matter, we'd done really well at Puhinui, so realistically had still managed my goal. As I was driving along, my left hand started to really, really hurt. Turns out I had dislocated my little finger at the knuckle and broken it just before the first joint. So was really, really proud of myself for getting back on & completing the course! LOL I do however think we will give up eventing, I don't really enjoy it & being that nervous & doing it anyway? Not so much fun!!

April 2008 - Woodhill Sands HT

2008-09-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

Entered Woodhill Sands as thankfully with all the hard ground about, at least I knew it was all on soft ground! LOL Booked in mine & Flynn's accomodation at Chateau de Mel for Friday and Saturday night as I was on at 8.50 in the morning for dressage.
Dressage went really well, we managed to get 8th equal. Starting to be a far cry from the days of finishing last or 2nd to last in the class!

Then it was time for SJing, our favourite part!! There was quite a bit of carnage in the SJing, heaps of rails & refusals. We went clear, which put us into 1st place overnight by 0.2%. Nothing like a bit of pressure!

Day of the XC came around & good grief, I was super nervous! LOL If I could go clear, I would be able to finish top 4 & that would have been my qualifier for Taupo. Good bold course, our only downfall was that you had to jump over a log into the water jump which I hadn't expected, training up until now has always been small drops with a ramp option, but not today! Flynn was super awesome on the XC course, went to spook at a few things but thought better of it & just powered over everything in front of him.

In fact we were going great guns, until we had to cross the arena to get to the water jump. He stopped & spun around about 200m away from the water jump which nearly got me off as I was not expecting it whatsoever!! Managed to turn him & get over to the water jump but still had a stop at the water, circled & went in with guns blazing on the next attempt, go the ugly arm photo!

Then off to do the rest of the course & he just carried on flying around. Over the chevron half way up the steep hill, over the big corner up the hill, over everything. He even came straight down the steep hill with no hesitations, such a far cry from the Henderson ODE!! It was such a great feeling, I got off, for the first time ever, I felt like I could have gone again. Wow, I actually just enjoyed an XC course. What the?!! LOL

We ended up with 6.8 time faults & 20 faults from the 1 stop at the water & finished up 15th overall. Our best result yet! Man I love my pony!!!!

March 2008 - Redvale HT & Whangarei HT

2008-09-24T14:02:00.001-07:00

Entered Redvale Horse Trial, got to paddocks super early, loaded him onto float & drove an hour north to Dairy Flat. Got there nice & early, plaited up & got my test sorted in my head. Got on & rode over to dressage arena, asked him to trot on & sure enough, he's lame. Got the farrier to look him over, suspected possible abscess. Poor pony!! So packed him up & took him home. Got him checked over, small abscess brewing & also slightly jarred up from the hard ground, so scratched from Whangarei as well to give him more time to come right.

March 2008 - Puhinui Young Event Horse

2008-09-24T13:56:00.001-07:00

YAY!! The big day has arrived! Karen agreed to be my groom for the day, as I suck at plaiting and you have 15 minutes from completing your dressage test, to put boots on, change gear if necessary, get to the jumping phase AND warm up. I don't cope with hectic to well when I'm nervous LOL
So we headed off to Puhinui & started plaiting up. We had to do an arrival inspection complete with our little NZEF booklets etc, but after waiting around for half an hour, someone finally came down & told us that the arrival inspections had been cancelled.

Flynn all prettied up for inspection (standing like a munter as he wanted to keep creeping forward!)Pretty pony in Karen's bridleSo quickly went back to the float and got ready for the dressage. Decided it was going to be easiest to just do my dressage test in my jumping saddle so that all I needed was to put boots on. Karen very nicely carried my jumping whip & boots for me so that we didn't have to dash back to the float in the middle and waste any time.
Warming up for the dressageDressage test had all sorts in it, we had to change rein in canter with simple changes through trot, lengthened strides, 5m loops etc. Bit technical for us! LOL The dressage arena was nicely set up, with pretty flowers around the outside & we did a lovely 4 foot plant spook as we entered the arena. Luckily it was right at the entry & just as I was sitting so was able to get leg on & get him moving almost instantly & the judges didn't comment on it, so phew! He did a nice test, bit tense, but for Flynn it was pretty good, we got 66% & 60.48% from the 2 judges
Finishing off lengthened strides & trying to rebalance before the corner(yes his head will fall off I don't look down)Then straight over the jumping. Did a couple of warm up jumps & headed in as we were first to go after morning tea break & I knew they were waiting for us.
Warm Up JumpFlynn jumped really nicely, did all the jumps with the right amount of striding etc

However unfortunately I didn't ride him very well & let him stop at the coloured dog kennel/ramp thing before the bank.
Circled and he jumped it straight away the next time with no hesitations.
Then up the ramp onto the bank, where we powered off the bank like an energiser bunny
Then over the last jump & off we go for our gallop
I was told by the judge when I walked the gallop area that morning, that they really wanted an absolute flatstick gallop, showing how balanced the horse is and how much ground they cover, without looking laboured etc.
Slowing down after the gallop Flynn trotting after I finally managed to get him stopped after the gallop
Then after that, we had to go over and do the last part, which was gear off for the conformation part, then I had to run Flynn up for the judges. I nearly died when they said that, my legs were all shaky already from doing the jumping LOL Ran him up & the lady very nicely helped me throw his gear back on & that was it, it was all over!
Had to wait around for a while to get the results, so was great to go & watch the Show Jumping. Eventually the scores were up & much to my amazement, we managed to get 8th!! Prizes were given out up to 6th place.

Scores are as follows
Dressage - 9th equal with 25.3
Jumping - 12th with 24.5 (stupid stop!)
Confirmation & type - 4th equal with 11
Suitability- 6th with 7.3
with 8th overall total mark 68.1%

The 4th to 6th place were all on 72.something% each, with 7th on 68.4%, so it was all very close! I was so proud of Flynn & very impressed that we had managed to score as high as we had across so many things.

Just adding in a good photo we got showing Flynn's colouring in the sun.

March 2008 - Te Atatu Derby Day

2008-09-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Met Mel & Cobs at the Te Atatu Derby Day, as it was the week before Puhinui YEH & figured a quick run would be good to get any spookiness out before the important day came around. Walked the course with Mel & nearly went home! What a technical course! Here I was thinking it would be some SJs set up around a XC course with the odd XC jump in it, but no, it was a full XC course, (complete with water & a massive ditch with a log at the back of it) with a 2 SJing courses, 1 set up at 1/3 & 1 set up at 2/3s of the way round the XC course! So much for a casual day! Really glad I bought my body protector just in case! We had a stop at the pile of logs in front of the water & then another one at the water but went clear over everything else, including the big ugly ditch
Warming Up

The Corner

The ditch. I think we both thought we might fall in!

March 2008 - Hopuhopu SJing - Anyone got an umbrella?!

2008-09-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

After getting Flynn's leg scanned to confirm that his tendon was in fact 100%, I took him down to Hopuhopu as this was our last chance at attempting to get a clear SJing round to qualify for Taupo. Unfortunately though, it just wasn't meant to be and with a horrible weather front stalling over the area, we had to ride in some really grotty conditions. There were horses sliding around all over the place, losing their back ends & it was just a general mess. We ended up with a rail in each class again in the 1m & 1.05m each day. We were very lucky in that we got to go & stay at Ky's place that night, so Flynn got a nice paddock instead of being stuck in a pen. Got back to the grounds to find all the jumps had blown down overnight, including the big wall which was on its side & took 3 guys to upright it. Good effort from the wind!! Couple of photos that Ky very nicely took for me. The organisers very nicely changed the course & moved all the jumps away from the mud from the day before.

February 2008 - Papatoetoe PC 2 Day Event & Stoopid Fences

2008-09-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

Entered Flynn into the pre training class at Papatoetoe's 2 day event. Figured this was guaranted a good XC round, so we'd both be rocking by the next weekend, which was the Hunua Horse Trial.
Went & did our dressage & with it being all nice & sorted, we finished on 2nd. Went over the SJing & went clear, so packed up & went home for the night. Went out the next morning to collect my clever wee pony, only to find that he'd gone & had a play fight with Royal over the fence & had stuck his front legs in it!! Blood everywhere, lots of skin missing, some deep cuts & very swollen tree trunk legs. Not good! Had to get vet out & he'd narrowly missed the tendon, so was very, very lucky! Went & scratched from the 2day while I was waiting for the vet to come out. Ended up having to scratch from both Hunua Horse Trial & Bay of Plenty (again!) Not having much luck with trying to get to Rotorua as scratched from their HT in November as well due to the abscess.

January 2008 - Hunua XC Practice

2008-09-24T13:46:00.003-07:00

On Auckland Anniversary, I went with Jannine, Claire, Natalie & Cath to Hunua for a play on the XC course before the Hunua Horse Trial which was coming up. Had an absolute blast & even managed to talk myself into being brave & jumping the big ditch in the front paddock
& even jumped over a log into the water for the first time. Made Claire do the water first though, as wasn't sure I was going to be able to bluff him enough & really wanted him to jump in without hesitating about it. He flew straight in with her, so that was great & I hopped back on my attempt.

This is a good photo to show why I don't like doing water jumps on my horse... he loves to have a look whilst jumping in!

Then had a play around the simple jumps & he never hesitated over any of them. Touch wood but I think we've sorted the spookiness!!!!

January 2008 - Hopuhopu SJ

2008-09-24T13:46:00.001-07:00

Took Flynn down to Hopuhopu with Sarah & Scarlett, as wanted to see if I could crack the clear round 1m SJing, so that I could also qualify for the Taupo Young Event Horse. Super, super hot that weekend!!! Had another go at 1.05m as well, however we got 1 rail in every single class we did, so the qualifying hopes had to be put on hold. We did however both cope with the height really well this, with neither of us really panicking, which was nice!! All photos are from the 1.05m class. Was good to see that he was clearing them convincingly too & not just scraping over.

January 2008 - Papatoetoe PC Ribbon Day

2008-09-24T13:45:00.001-07:00

Decided to support our PC & did the ribbon day. My first one since starting back riding again & Flynn's first one. I thought it woudl be intersting to see how he copes with horses trotting & cantering in the same direction as him. He was really good & calm about it all & even got placed in a few of the morning flat classes which was nice!

Then came the bareback class. They made us trot while touching our toes, arms in the air etc, canter, so on & so forth. Was so much fun & really glad we did it!

Then after lunch, it was time for the best part! The jumping!! We got placed in every class & ended out taking the lovely wide supreme ribbon! YAY Flynny!!

Got some cute photos of Richard holding Flynn

Flynn with his ribbons - Excuse the bad photo!!

January 2008 - Woodhill Sands Show Hunter

2008-09-24T13:44:00.001-07:00

Took Flynn to his first registered SH outing as wanted to finish off qualifying for Puhinui Young Event Horse. Needed to get a clear round at 95cm with a placing of 4th or higher. Managed to get that sorted in our first round & even came away with SH points! Placed in the 4&5 year old class, so was very happy with that. Also had a go at our first ever 1.05m class in ring 1. Yikes, what was I thinking? We both came around the corner into the first jump & both of us at the same time went "OH SHYITE" LOL
We had a few rails as I just couldn't adjust & he really needed a better ride at that stage & I wasn't able to give it to him. Very proud of my boy though, not once did he stop when he was unsure, he tried it anyway, so very pleased. It was a stinking hot day too!!

Xmas Holidays - Boot Camp

2008-09-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

My parents have a farm in the Wairarapa, complete with uneven ground, creeks to cross & a massive big hill out the back to play on. Time for Flynn to harden up!!
Picked up my new saddle for Flynn the day before we left, I ended up having to buy a brand new Bates Momentum, then send it away to have the Cair panels ripped out of it & it to be filled with flock, so as to prevent the rodeo pony routine from happening again...
The trip down was an experience, slept overnight in the car at Taupo Equestrian Centre while Flynn had a nice play in the paddock there & then carried on early in the morning to miss the traffic. Got as far as Eketahuna (15 minutes north of Mum & Dad's place) when the car started making very, very bad noises!! So pulled over into the rest stop. Richard ascertained that it was possibly the stone guard loose & hitting the wheel, however with no tools we couldn't fix it, so rang mum who came up with a little tool kit. Didn't want to risk driving on it as a) wasn't 100% sure it was that & b) didn't want it to come lose & cut through a brake cable. It also sounded initially like it was the gearbox, so we really wanted ot make sure before we headed out again. Flynn didn't mind the stop at all, he got to graze around the rest area, not even remotely fussed by the big trucks going flying past on the highway. Even mugged some poor kid for her apple core when they pulled in to say hi to him & for the little girl to pat a real horse.

Richard finished fixing the car & we were on our way again. Got to the farm & put Flynn in his new paddock. He thought it was great as it was right next to the house & if you stay at that end of the paddock long enough, you'll get carrots thrown at you from the deck... Grass was long enough he could hide in it

Day One, took Flynn for a bareback hack around the flat areas around the farm & introduced him to sheep. Apparently they are a touch scary! LOL

Day Two, took Flynn down to Mandy's place to have a quick play around over her jumps & to pick up his new paddock mate, Nacho. Bought the ponies home & gave them dinner. Very happy families thank goodness!

Day Three. Rode Flynn out over the farm & introduced him to creek crossings & after a few leaps sideways leaps, he cottoned on that he could just go through them. Took him for a wander out towards the back hill, only forgot that there was a creek crossing complete with a tiny bridge over it. After half an hour of 1 step forward & 10 steps backwards, we eventually crossed the bridge. Turned him around & tried to cross it again & got the same response. After an hour, we could walk back & forwards across the bridge without hysterics, so flagged the hill ride & took him back in again. Had a lovely gallop across the paddock which I'm sure had both of us beaming!

Tried the creeks & bridge crossing again the next day & what do you know, he'd remembered!!! So took him up the hill. Found a bit where the hill evened out a bit before going up again & played around with some logs there. Flynn was starting to feel more & more confident by this stage, so was quite stoked. Took him back & gave him a bath as was going to take him over to Palmerston North to do the New Years show at Tielcey Park. Was eating dinner on the deck that night when I saw him trot over to a dusty spot & roll, only to get up awkwardly. Finished dinner & wandered over to find that he'd knocked himself getting up. Hosed the leg for 20 minutes & bandaged it in the hope it would take the swelling down. Hosed it again at 10pm before going to bed.

Got up early in the morning, only to find his leg still swollen, now complete with a teensy limp. Poor guy! Flagged going to the show & spent the day hosing his leg on & off. Swelling came down by that night & he was walking properly again. Kept an eye on it over the next few days & even still, it managed to get infected, so had to get the vet out on New Years day for antibiotics. Didn't ride again in the end as got busy with friends coming over & visiting & giving pony rides on Nacho. Luckily the drive home was much less exciting!

December 2007 - Henderson Valley PC ODE - Pre Training

2008-09-23T02:31:00.001-07:00

Decided that maybe I should back Flynn off a level & try & get him a bit more confident on the XC course. Entered the Pre Training class at Henderson Valley PC. Mel came out & took photos of the dressage for me, which was very good of her!! It started raining as soon as I took Flynn of the float & I was sorely tempted to go home as didn't want to spend all day in the rain, but Mel talked me into staying & to harden up LOL I also was not looking forward to the dressage part as we had to show some lengthened steps across the diagonal & I'd never even attempted that with him before. Oh well, its just a training/bravery exercise...
Warming up in the rain

Test Begins

Extended Trot! We got an 8 for this!!

In fact we got 4x 8's in this test & a 9 for the long rein walk!! We ended up on 83% which put us into 2nd place. Went back to the float & had lunch & the rain very nicely stopped & the day started clearing up. Went over for the SJing & managed to go clear, to hang on to 2nd. Then it was time for the XC. Pretty straight forward course, nothing was really worrying me too much, which made a nice change, so off to the start box we go. The first jump was a nice ramp in the fence line, followed by a steep hill we had to go down, to a box jump down the bottom. Simple. Easy. NOPE. Flynn came into the first jump & I honestly think he was taking the piss as he slid into it & stopped. I was so gobsmacked that I didn't even think to put my legs on or give him a tap when I felt him slowing up, I had completely taken it as a gimme & Flynn had decided that this was not good enough on my part. Which was true, but still! Snot rag! Then after a whack & a circle he flew over it like he bliddy well should have done in the first place LOL However now we have a slight problem in that Flynn's only ever lived on flat land before, no steep downhillls & there was no way he was going to go down it. After having hysterics at the top of the hill for a couple of minutes & getting his ass tanned, he eventually went down the hill. I could feel him wanting to stop the whole way down, I couldn't take my legs off once or he'd spin & stop again. What a wimp! Anyway, we got down the bottom & popped over the box & off we went. Cleared the next few jumps & then disaster hit again. We had to over a narrow bridge to get to the back paddock. Apparently that wasn't happening. I was well & truly peeved by this stage, so after a few hard smacks he decided to pull his head in & carried on over the bridge. Went beautifully round the rest of the course after that, over the corner, the big ditch & straight into the water. What a shame that we had a kajillion time faults as with only 1 stop, this was actually our best effort yet!!

December 2007 - Waerenga Horse Trial

2008-09-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

Picked Flynn up from Kirstin's on the Friday night & took him home. Kirstin very nicely leant me her saddle for the weekend as she wasn't riding & I hadn't been able to find a new saddle yet. Packed the truck (Sarah very nicely offered to take in the truck) & got ready for Waerenga Horse Trial the next day. My parents were going to come & watch on their way back home to Wellington, so I was a little bit nervous as I hadn't really ridden much in the month before hand with Flynn being away, & my mum has a small tendancy to get very worried when I'm jumping (the joys of having an advanced paramedic as a mother! doesn't help when they've seen all the accidents)
Got on & warmed up for our dressage test. Did really well, even managed to get 12th! Yay for Kirstin's schooling! At 10am it was already stinking hot, so was going to be a very, very long day in the sun. Spent most of our time trying to find shade to hide under.

Then it was time for the Show Jumping.
Wandered over & walked the course. Uh oh, 2 walls! This could be interesting! But very happily, Flynn went clear round the course. I actually rode it too, which helps!

Then it was lunch & time to hide from the sun. We ended up all crammed down one side of the truck, with Flynn mugging everyone for their lunches. Turns out my pony likes Dunken Doughnuts! Started getting ready waaaay too late for the XC, as I had worked the classes out wrong (DUH!) & raced over the warm up area, only to see the rider before leaving the box. Shyite! Raced over the warm up jump once & cantered straight on through to the start line. Went out on to the course, cleared the first jump & got about 50m away from it, when Flynn suddenly stopped & spun around. Couldn't figure out what his problem was, until I realised it was the creek crossing. He'd never had to do any of them before! Couldn't get him over it & was aware we were holding up the course, so went back round the corner in sight of the start box & waved for them to let the next rider out. Got a lead from them over the creek & then fell back to let them carry on. Cleared the next few jumps until he caught sight of the big open field with the rider at the other end & decided he'd quite like to catch up. I was ready for him this time though & managed to regain some resemblance of control, but not enough for the bounce, so went past it & did the zig zag option in the trees instead. Came up to the bank complex, where Flynn had a refusal at jumping up the bank & then refused to jump off the bank. Luckily I managed to get him off between the flags, or would have had to jump back up & try to come back off again correctly. Then off to creek crossing number 2. Only problem with this one, is that it was right next to the spectators & the announcer. So I'm sitting there on my rearing, leaping athletic horse, with the announcer going "And here we have Kristal Mattingley & I'z Kool... Hmmm, he really doesn't like the creek crossing does he? I'm thinking she's going to want to rename him!" How embarrassing! Luckily then the next rider came through & Flynn tucked in behind them. Got up the water jump & he went to hesitate. I was thinking oh no you don't sunshine, not after 2 creek crossings you don't! So yelled & growled & wacked him when I felt him slow down. He quickly changed his mind & powered into the water, so that was a good start. Came through the gates & lined up the palisade. Good god this thing was massive, it was full height, with a full width ditch in front of it. In fact it looked very, very similar to the PreNovice one next to it! Except the obvious 10cm difference in height. Belted him into it & basically went in with the thought process that the faster we go, the less likely he can physically stop himself. Sure enough, we get up to the thing & I'm yelling & pretending that I'm not scared (hahaha whatever!!) & he went to stop & quickly decided that would possibly prove suicidal for both of us & did a massive leap over it. Thank goodness his brain has returned!! Then onto the third creek crossing. He flew through that & headed towards the last jumps where my parents were stationed (luckily I had thought to put them at the nice simple uprights!)

Finished the course on just 2 refusals at the bank, as the river crossings thankfully weren't flagged, but did have a cricket score of time faults. Still, was very happy with Flynn as once he got over the river crossing dramas, he actually went very well. Onwards & upwards from here, surely?!

Its not happening...

2008-09-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

Just when I was starting to actually look forward to my next event, the Whangarei Horse Trial was cancelled due to the rain & never ending mud that they had up there. I then had to scratch from the Rotorua Horse Trial as Flynn got a meaty abscess, that ended up coming out in 3 places, coronary band, heel & middle of frog. Ew!! Then in the middle of saddle fitting process, my darling little boy started playing up badly. Broncing, the works. Started to get really nappy & I couldn't do anything with him, so sent him out to Kirstin Kelly's for a month of boot camp. Turns out the poor boy just didn't like the Cair panels in the Bates saddles. As soon as we put him in a flock filled saddle, the hysterics ceased all together. I guess at least I got a nicely schooled pony out of it all!! On the plus side, before Flynn did go, we went out to a registered dressage day at Clevedon & got our dressage side of qualifying for Young Event Horse out of the way, complete with our first registered dressage points!!

September 2007 - Te Rapa Horse Trial

2008-09-23T01:03:00.000-07:00

Man I'm a sucker! Got talked into giving it another go & that I should do so as soon as possible to try & erase the bad memory of Taupo. 2 weeks later & I've managed to get a late entry into the Te Rapa. Wasn't too sure if I felt lucky or not about that one!! Arrived at Te Rapa & got ready for the dressage. Dressage test was quite below average due to me mucking up my timings & not getting a warm at all. WHOOPS! Finished the dressage on 24th out of 28. Then went & did the SJing. Thankfully we went clear. Went & walked the XC course & nearly fainted when I saw how horribly open the trakhener was. Small log, big ditch. Crapola! Carried on walking the course. There was a bounce, a big drop & a lovely upright with a sloping drop on the other side at the back of the course. XC day dawned. Got ready for the XC. Entered the warm up area, at which point Flynn decided that he was excited. Only did one practice fence as was shaking with nerves & trying to figure out if I could throw up behind a bush & not be noticed! They called our number & we were off. Managed to keep a much more leisurely speed on this attempt, as I never let him get any faster than a quick canter. That & my new waterford bit helped! Came up through the clearing to where the trakhener was & Flynn spotted the crowd of people & starting gawking at them & backing off. I have to admit by this stage I was a little worried about the trakhener & pretty much pulled him to a stop before it. We circled around & cleared it nicely, which surprised me, he didn't even really look at it. Off down to the double with the skinny. Cleared that & powered down to the water. Had a stop at the ramp coming into the water but after a tap with the whip, carried on through. Up through the coffin combination, over a few uprights & off towards the bounce combination. Had thought to myself that if I had control, was going to give it a go. He did the bounce really nicely, in fact was probably the best thing he jumped. Then off to the drop, he hesitated, I growled & he leapt in straight away. What a good boy! Then off to the palisade. Now I know its tiny but by this stage I was pretty knackered. I completely took my legs off & prayed for a stop. Sure enough I got one. Took him off to the side to get my breath back & let a few riders few, so that I could get some strength back in my legs, as I knew I had the upright with the small drop at the back end of the course & was definitely going to need to bluff my way over that one! Carried on & headed out to the jump. Came into it & gave him a whack for good measure. Silly move! All that did was get an over exuberant leap over the jump, which then caused him to land on the flat & all that energy had to travel somewhere. So it did & came right up through the saddle & cannoned me out of the saddle & up his neck. Hoisted myself back & quickly circled before the chevron. Lined up the chevron & we popped over it & headed towards the finish line. I was so, so happy to have actually completed the course after all the mishaps & hesitations etc. We even managed to finish 24th out of the 25 people who completed it. Also nice to finish the weekend whilst still on good terms with Flynn!

September 2007 - Flynn goes to Taupo & I go swimming...

2008-09-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

Right. Off to play eventing genius with Flynn. I packed up the car & the float with every earthly possession I have, threw the horse in & off we went, to spend 5 days camped at Taupo for the Kirstin Kelly Clinic & the Taupo Training Trial. It was going to be fun I optimistically told myself. Hahaha what a Tui Ad!

Day 1
Just over 4 hours later we arrived at Taupo. Smile was quickly wiped off my face when I found out I had been given the wrong time for my group & was on in half an hour! YIKES! So much for the couple of hours I had given myself & Flynn to relax after the drive! Luckily for me Louise helped me get Flynn ready. Hopped on & headed out onto the XC course. We warmed up over a small log, which should have been sweet as but everytime we landed & cantered away, he'd do some acrobatics as he was just so excited to be there. Then onto the ditch & upright with boulders underneath it. In the world according to Flynn, boulders are scary & will eat you, however after a couple of stops, decided that flying over them would be the better approach. By this stage my nerves are pretty much shot & I have no lower leg to speak of. Which is not good, when you come into a ditch. A lovely little tiny ditch. Well thats what I saw, not sure what he saw, maybe something of the molten lava variety with horse eating monsters there too? Not sure, anyway, nearly came off a few times as once he stopped stopping at it, he then started jumping it, by going straight up in the air. It was then confirmed that he was not really jumping across it & with all that power coming from under the saddle, certainly lead for some very interesting jump positions on my behalf. Luckily I seemed to have a monkey like ability to cling on, so didn't come off. Just as well as I probably would have given up then & there! We then went off to do some other jumps around the place. Thankfully we both settled a bit & started to enjoy ourselve a little. Over at the Palisade I was thinking to myself oh dear mother of god, I'm going to fall in the ditch & hit my head on the wall & die. But Flynn had other ideas & thankfully flew over it. With no help from me as I'm pretty sure I near on tried pulling him up in front of it! End of day one & I'm still alive. But only just. Turns out the pony can tank a little bit, so decided to take him out of the KK Trainer & put him in the copper roller for day 2's effort. Nerves not helped throughout the session with various horses returning to camp riderless as their riders were out doing their own thing on the course.

Day 2
Got up & got Flynn ready. He thinks this dinner AND breakfast thing is awesome!! Threw on the copper roller & went off to find the rest of my class. Thank god for day 2!! Flynn decided that he pretty much had this lark all sorted & merrily jumped everything in front of him. Had one unexpected stop at an upright double out in the middle but I think he might have been wanting some leg on coming into it. Turns out I'm so scared out XC that my legs turn to jelly & become completely ineffective. We had to string together a few jumps so that it was more like a course today, with an upright 2 strides before the drop into the water, a nice big corner etc. Lucky for me, I like corners & Flynn seems to like them too, so no issues there & even went over the log nicely into the water. Flynn pulled up quite nicely in the copper roller too, so that was good as he was just starting to get a bit of a pull on, on the other side of the jumps. Turns out he's quite quick when he puts his mind to it!

Day 3 - Show Jumping Practice Day
Custard. Absolute custard. Flynn decided he was mortified that I'd dared use a single joint bit on him the day before & decided that the order of the day was to rush & jump hollow, with head in the air. Mmmm, sexy! Couldn't do anything with him & after having a disagreement about the speed necessary in a SJ ring, decided to call it a day. Gina had a quick ride on him & did her best to settle him but it wasn't really going to happen. Never mind, he actually went clear, just more like an inverted banana than the nice round pony he normally is...

Went around with the others & walked the XC course. Holy shyite! Its massive! & scary!! & had 2 water jumps! they had done all sorts of horrible things, like putting a kennel on the ramp to the bank, 2 strides off the bank, then 3 strides to a chevron which they then put brush on top of. 2 stride double in the trees with a long ground line filled with brush. Oh crap, I was definitely going to die.

Day 4 - Day of Death. I mean, Training Trial...
Woke up to the sound of rain on the roof & thought uh oh. Should have stayed in bed. Was towards the end of the class, so had plenty of time to muck about & get ready. Went in & did our dressage test, which was bollocks. Apparently, the best way to canter in a dressage test is to drop your belly onto the ground, disunite & go around with eyes on stalks. So ended up 20th out of 22 for that effort. Hehehe excellent start!!

Went over & did the SJing & got a nice clear round from him, albeit it very tense & banana like.

Then it was time for the death phase. I mean XC phase. Luckily for me, Sarah very nicely came down & stayed the night in her car the night before & was able to take photos of what was about to unfold....

We got called over to the start box. So far so good, we've even managed the practice jump without me throwing up. Left the start box & did the first third of the course beautifully, landed after the big corner & lined up the first water. He jumped into that beautifully! Photo courtesy of Take The Moment. Then he bolted. Flynn's suicide mission had started. All I had was steering & even that was being a bit generous...

Cleared the palisade by miles We bounced down the 1 stride stair case
Then carried on at a flat out mad gallop, over the double with the skinny, up the bank & over the upright, then onto towards the double in the trees. Had a run out here, was going so fast, that as he ran out at the last minute, my head was left a tree level. Managed to push myself back into saddle off the tree as we swung past, complete with a collective gasp from the crowd. Very lucky I didn't break my arm on the tree. I have no control whatsoever & had gone from pleading with Flynn to stop, to doing some angry dentistry which was not having any effect whatsoever.

By this stage, I'm starting to feel a little panicky as we still had the dog kennel on the ramp to the bank, with the big drop & then 3 strides to the chevron with brush on top of it.
And then it was the beginning of the end. Little did I know it, but we were going to be finished veeeeeeery soon....
Came over the roll top before the water & then Flynn spotted the water jump & realised that it was a bit dirtier than the other one, so mum should really go & check it out instead, just in case he got poisoned from it or something...
SPLASH!!
Off I go! I landed on my lower back on the log in front of the water & bounced off that & landed face first in the muddy water. At which point Flynn scarpered back to the float & left me swearing & cursing (a lot!) It was freaking cold! They held up the course as they wouldn't let me get off my hands & knees (mmm attractive & COLD!) until they were sure I hadn't hit my head. They asked me where I was & I said "in the middle of the freaking cold water jump at Taupo" at which point they said I was obviously with it enough to move around & hop out. Thank gawd! My friend bought Flynn back to me & I was buggered if I was going to walk all that way back to the float, so hopped on & rode back. Still wasn't talking to him by this stage. Got back to float & Sarah very nicely untacked him for me while I went & had a very long hot shower. Decided then & there to pack up asap & go home as I wasn't going to cope very well with sleeping in the cold float that night with a sore back & was very glad I did, as by the time I got back to Meremere, I was quite stiff & sore. Stopped to let Flynn out for a walk around the Mobil service station (I was talking to him now) & thought for a moment that he was broken as he was doing a really weird moon walk around the car park. Until I realised he was scared of the white painted car park lines & didn't want to stand on them. This caused a bit of amusement & the evil side of me walked him over them for a bit longer so that I could have a bit of a giggle at his expense. Put him back on the float & carried on back to Auckland. Got home about midnight & fell asleep thinking how much I hated eventing! LOL

Winter 2007

2008-09-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Flynn was turned out into the big hilly back paddock for a much needed holiday from end of May through until the end of July. Now sure who benefited more from the break, him or my wallet!! I did use the time to get his sarcoid by his girth cut out, which was just as well as it took a month to finally close over as he kept ripping the stitches out. Was pretty gross experience & not one I'm keen to repeat in a hurry! Bought him back into work at the end of July as had foolishly decided that we were going to try & qualify for Young Event Horse as he was coming into his 5 year old season & had quite a nice jump on him, so hey, why not? hahaha famous last words!

May 2007 Pointways ODE (PreTraining)

2008-09-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

Decided it was time to put my brave undies on & give an ODE another try. Entered the Pre Training at Pointways ODE. Got up nice & early went with Sarah in her truck. She was my groom for the day & made sure I was well topped up with Baileys & Chocolate Milk. She's the bestest groom ever! She even leant me her lucky Mark Todd saddleblanket.
Dressage was good

Jumping was even better! He went clear & didn't even hesitate at anything! However he did take off waaaay too early over one jump

Then it was time for the dreaded XC. Flynn had to do his first jump into water & it didn't go down too well with him. He was absolutely horrified by the thought of it & after our first stop, I did the option instead. He then stopped coming down the beach! Got a bit of a smack for that one! He redeemed himself though as he flew over everything else, including his first trakhener, which I was more worried about & kept telling myself to "look up at the trees, look up at the trees"!!!!!

April 2007 - Dressage Time!

2008-09-09T14:50:00.001-07:00

Grudglingly I entered us into a registered dressage show at Clevedon as I decided it was probably time for him to have some more variety as since January, he's done 1 Show Hunter show, 2x ODES & a bit of Adult Ride stuff, with games, jumping etc. We did 1.2 & 1.3. His first test, 1.2, wasn't so crash hot, (not really taking a contact & not very forward) & his second test was whizzy as I gave him a molasses water drink in the lunch break. Turns out it can't handle sugar too well! LOL Dressage horse we aren't!!
1.2

1.3

March 2007 - Adult Ride Stuff

2008-09-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

March was nice & quiet, just took him down to do some adult ride stuff at PC. Richard got some cute photos him jumping, then decided to see if Flynn would fit his watch (WTF? LOL) Lucky Flynn is so patient!

February 2007 Hunua ODE (PreTraining) - Tara's Turn!!

2008-09-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

We decided that maybe someone with stronger legs & a bit more confident at XC (I get petrified!!!) would be best to get Flynn to go clear round a whole XC course. So Tara volunteered herself for the job. We took him out to Hunua for their ODE & entered him into the Pre Training. The dressage was good, he was very well behaved & did quite a nice test. Helps when the rider has nice long legs!!

Then, nothing like a bit of stress, with Tara being last to go in the dressage, meant they were holding the SJing ring open for us & threatening to close it. So we dashed straight over to the jumping, with no time for boots or anything. I was a little worried as there were quite a few jumps in there that he hadn't seen before. He had one stop at the blue & white picket & then jumped it like it was going to bite him the next time LOL It would appear bravery is not his strong point!!

Then onto the XC. Unfortunately as I was working for Heirlooms Photography that day, I was only able to get 1 jump photographed, which was the ditch, and he'd never seen a ditch before. I'm glad I did as his expression is just comical. He did his best superman impression to get his legs out the way in case he fell in it...

End result was 2 stops, 1 as he spooked at the gravel in front of a small upright & one out the back end of the course as a tree had created a shady spot. He trotted around the course quite happily though & came in with a lovely cricket score of time faults hehehe. Was a brilliant day though, great for mileage, and the weather was perfect!. It was also really quite enjoyable having someone else ride him for me!!

February 2007 Mangere ODE (intro)

2008-09-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it can jump, but can it do a dressage test?? Entered Flynn into his first ODE & suddenly realised, hmmm, this could be interesting! He's never done dressage before, let alone been into a dressage arena with letters & a car at the end of it! After about 3 laps of the arena he decided to stop spooking at the judge (thank goodness!!)

Check out the most awesome halt! Hahahahaha
The test was mostly quite nice, but got a little tense after the first canter & then our halt was just exceptional hehehe!!

Then it was time for the bit we actually like! We had a good clear round, even if we did bounce the 1 stride double!!

XC Time - We managed to get right royally eliminated when Flynn took major exception to a fenceline jump that had a drop on the other side. (shaking, the works!) He eventually jumped it after 3 stops, he also stopped at another fenceline jump that had a massive puddle/lake on each side of it & at a stile type jump that was quite narrow (Jump 4 in the photos) Straight into the water though, so was quite happy for his first proper course!

January 2007 - Flynns First Show

2008-09-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

After much prodding from Tara & Karen, I took Flynn out to his first show. It just happened to be the big 2 day 2* Show Jumping/Show Hunter show out at Kumeu, so would be interesting to see how he coped with the atmosphere. Shouldn't have worried, he wasn't even remotely fussed! I was really impressed with him. Had a few stops in the practice round, wasn't too keen on the white fences or the flowers, but was perfect in the judged rounds, even came away with a couple of placings as well!

January 2007 - Flynn Goes XC Schooling

2008-09-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Decided it was about time Flynn was introduced to some solid jumps. Went with Jannine out to Greenhithe for their open day. Had an absolute blast playing round the xc course, had a few boggle eyed moments from Flynn, but once he got the hang of it, he just flew around everything.
Warming Up

Warm Up Jumps

First attempt at corner

Apparently now he's a pro at corners

Water Jump

Finishing Off

Winter 2006 - Ti Papa Indoor Series

2008-09-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

We had gotten a bit bored with doing nothing, so decided to head over to the big indoor arena at Ti Papa & try our hand at their training days. Just kept to 70cm on the first time we went & tried 85cm on our next visit as didn't want to do anything too big with him while he's still growing

First Show 70cm

Next show 85cm

Flynn's first attempt at jumping

2008-09-05T03:13:00.000-07:00

I had lost a lot of confidence on my previous horse, so decided at the last minute (literally) to drag Flynn out of the paddock and take him instead to the Adult Ride jumping lesson with Kirstin Kelly. I'd only had him 6 months at this stage & hadn't done anything with him other than hacking. As you can tell, Flynn thinks that yes, the jumps are really & truly going to eat him & must be cleared with as much air as possible between himself & the horrible stripey poles.

After a little while he decided they weren't quite so scary & starting jumping more calmly

Introducing Flynn

2008-09-05T02:40:00.000-07:00

Have decided its about time Flynn had his own blog. He certainly has enough personality to fill one!!

Flynn has just turned 6 years old and is about 16.1hh. He is very bright orange & he thinks he's the coolest horse ever, so has the show name I'z Kool (think Ali G styles). Was originally bred to be a polo pony, but grew too big. I got him as a greenbroke 4 year old off Margaret Grey.

Here is Flynn the day he arrived at my grazing. Turns out he was only 3 1/2.

3 months after I got him (Sorry, he's standing downhill in this one)

& 6 months after I got him